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Credit: ITMFour years ago, Walt Disney Studios staffers LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore filed a complaint accusing their employer of discriminating against female employees, paying them less than their male counterparts.
Today, with the data to back it up, their lawyers, as well as attorneys of other female employees, are seeking to turn the matter into a class action suit.
Disney’s Female Employees Seek Class Action Lawsuit
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Plaintiffs’ attorney Lori Andrus and Joseph M. Sellers and Christine E. Webber of D.C.-based Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll argue in their filing that “Disney systematically pays women in California less than men.” They head off predictable initial arguments, saying that the disparity is not based on any other discernable factors other than sex.
The document alleges that this pay disparity totaled over $150 million in wages.
Disney violated the Fair Employment & Housing Act (“FEHA”) because its common practices caused a disparate impact on women. It also violated California’s Equal Pay Act (“EPA”), which does not require Plaintiffs to identify the cause of the disparities, because it pays women less for substantially similar jobs.
The terms of the filing ask that the court recognize Disney’s female, non-union employees below the level of Vice President as a class of individuals, and allow them to challenge Disney in court over sex discrimination in compensation at their company on or after April 1, 2015.
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The filing goes on to add:
Only as a class can the women at Disney address wage gaps and receive effective injunctive and monetary remedies. Injunctive relief to address systematic disparities is unattainable through individual actions as the scope of relief would be limited to the scope of the violation shown, and an individual plaintiff would not obtain the breadth of discovery of a class. And many class members are unlikely to bring individual actions.
In other words, if they were not to challenge as a whole class, many women who worked at Disney would feel too afraid of retribution from the company – such as losing their jobs – to come forward, and without enough of them, it would be much more difficult to prove to the court that the pay differences are widespread, and not based on individual differences in skill or experience, as Disney claims it is.
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The company’s official stance is that the claims in the filing are “simply false,” but according to a 2017 pay-equity study study included in the filing, conducted by Disney themselves, they’ve been paying women 2.5% less on average since that year – the same year the company stopped using prior salary levels as a benchmark for setting starting pay.
If the suit is successful, Disney could owe as much as $300 million to the plaintiffs, under stipulations of the Golden State’s Equal Pay Act, not to mention any additional damages the judge may see fit to add.
Do you think the filing will go through? Do you think Disney will win or lose? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments.