This story from the Orlando Sentinel was brought to my attention by a regular commenter yesterday. It seems that a number of former Disney IT workers have filed a class action suit against Disney and Disney’s outsourcing companies for H-1B violations:
Two former Walt Disney World tech employees filed federal lawsuits against the company Monday, accusing it and two outsourcing firms of conspiring to replace workers with less costly foreign ones using H-1B visas.
The lawsuits were filed in federal court, in the Middle District of Florida, by Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, who were among 250 Disney tech workers laid off about a year ago. The lawsuits seek class-action status.
Defendants include HCL Inc. and Cognizant Technologies.
Sara Blackwell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuits aim to “kick them [outsourcing companies] at their business model, to stop them from systemically abusing the immigration system.”
Maybe I’m underestimating their case but I think it’s going to be hard for the plaintiffs to prevail. A good proposal writer can make a case for practically anything, i.e. that re-aligning qualifications to require new employees is an absolute necessity.
Depends whether it goes to a judge or a jury. (Anyone know?) If I was among the plaintiffs I’d be hoping this goes to a jury of my peers.
The part about workers training their replacements sounds like a bad proposal writer wrote: Wanted people to do existing jobs for less.