OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
4:00 PM – Tuesday, December 12, 2023
A United States judge has legally authorized 9,000 women to sue the Walt Disney Company after a lawsuit claimed that there was a pay disparity between male and female employees.
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On December 8th, a judge in Los Angeles, California, verified a lawsuit that was filed under California’s Equal Pay Act, which forbids employers from paying employees less for substantially similar work on an individual basis of being the opposite sex or a different race.
Disney representatives stated that they were“disappointed” with the court’s decision regarding the Equal Pay Act allegations and are now “considering our options.”
A spokesperson for Disney posted a statement expressing disappointment about the situation.
“We are disappointed with the court’s ruling as to the Equal Pay Act claims and are considering our options,” the company spokesperson said.
However, Judge Elihu Berle rejected Disney’s arguments.
As a result, the class-action lawsuit has been named the largest-ever lawsuit authorized under California’s Equal Pay Act.
Lori Andrus, the plaintiffs’ attorney, praised the decision outside of the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, saying that Disney has been “gaslighting these women for four years.”
“Disney has been gaslighting these women for four years,” Andrus said. “They love their jobs. They love the brand. But they want to be respected and treated the way they should be in the workplace.”
Andrus also informed reporters that the starting pay for women was 2% lower than it is for men.
“These are important cases for reducing the wage gap and exposing discriminatory pay practices,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Lori Andrus said. “We are honored to represent the brave women who have come forward to tell the stories of so many women who are treated like cheap labor. We are pleased that the judge saw through Disney’s tactics. Fairness is the goal. That is all.”
The lawsuit involves female Disney workers who have been employed at the company since 2015 in non-union positions.
The women included in the lawsuit have reportedly worked at Disney-owned hotels, theme parks, cruise lines, the Disney film and TV studios, ABC, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and additional entities.
However, Felicia Davis, the attorney representing Disney, also made a statement asserting that the plaintiffs are attempting to compare salaries across thousands of job groups, which mirror the “decentralized decisions of thousands of managers.”
“These are different segments, different business areas, in different locations,” she said. “They report to different managers. They are in completely different industries which pay completely differently.”
A status conference has been scheduled for February 9th and the trial is set to be held at some point before October 2024, according to Andrus.
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