Los Angeles, CA: Walt Disney is facing a putative class action lawsuit filed by a former Disneyland employee who alleges the entertainment company failed to provide vacation pay to former workers at six Disneyland properties when those employees left the company, in violation of California labor law.
Filed by California resident Reykeel Zorio, the lawsuit asserts that Walt Disney Worldwide Services Inc. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc. failed to pay his accrued vacation time when he left Disney. The lawsuit further claims that the defendants willfully failed to immediately pay fired employees wages, vacation time and other compensation they were owed, as well as pay such compensation within 72 hours to those who quit, as required by California law.
"Moreover, the final wages that defendants eventually paid to each plaintiff did not include all of the wages, vacation time and other compensation that were in fact due and owing to plaintiff," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit seeks to represent a class comprised of all former, nonexempt employees of the defendants who worked at any of the six California properties during the past four years. Those properties are: the Disneyland Hotel, Disney Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Disney' Paradise Pier Hotel, Downtown Disney District, Disneyland Park and Disney' California Adventure Park.
According to the lawsuit, member of the class, which could exceed 500, are entitled to receive wages for each day they were not paid at their regular rate for up to 30 days from the time they were due as a penalty under California labor law.
The plaintiff is seeking damages for unpaid vacation wages at the time of the employees' discharge, restitution of wages and disgorgement of profits due to fraudulent, unfair and illegal business practices, according to the lawsuit.
The case is Zorio v. Walt Disney Worldwide Services Inc. et al., case number BC549292, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles. The plaintiff is represented by Neal J. Fialkow and James S. Cahill of the Law Offices of Neal J. Fialkow Inc. and Sahag Majarian II.
