tuscl

Off topic - Disney shaft

ATACdawg
Thank God Trump is FIRED!!! Lock him up!
My sister-in-law, who has been a faithful employee for almost 35 years, just got a termination notice from Disney. On her last day she will be six, that's right, six weeks short of retirement.

She started in reservations and has worked her way up through increasingly more responsible jobs. Her last posting was in food service, selecting and approving food for the entire Disney World complex. In her current job she got a merit raise only two months ago. Eighteen others are in a similar position.

She is numb right now. I see this as a cynical effort by Disney to steal her retirement. There is no other way to describe it.

Anyway, I am looking for opinions from you legal eagles out there. I can't imagine that Disney has a supportable position in any court, particularly in front of a jury. Any lawyers out their interested in a class action, contingent fee case?

34 comments

  • Papi_Chulo
    •
    10 years ago
    Man - that’s f’ed up – perhaps you should seek out a law forum and post your question there – hope she has a case and gets paid for being treated that way – but you won’t know unless you get educated by doing some research and fight for your (sister) rights – perhaps they’ve done this to others and a class-action can be implemented.

    I don’t know crap about the law so take my comment w/ a grain of salt.
  • motorhead
    •
    10 years ago
    What a Mickey Mouse company!
  • sharkhunter
    •
    10 years ago
    That is just wrong and very unethical in my opinion. It reflects poorly on Disney as a company. Hopefully a few rich people read comments here and let it be known that Disney has poor ethics. I thought big comoanies like Disney that need good PR would do what it takes to not create bad PR. I guess not if times are tough at Disney.
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    Some accounting weenie probably thought it was a great idea. Since pension plans are supposed to be fully funded it seems to me that someone has been raiding the till.
  • ime
    •
    10 years ago
    do you mean she isn't eligible for a full pension benefit, or not any pension benefit? Employees are usually fully vested in 10 years or less. I don't know Disney's plan but its usually a combination of service and age.
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    Can't answer that ime. My wife got a call from another one of her sisters and I don't know all of the details yet. It does seem like she should be due something but I've never seen the plan.
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    I think that she is coming up on her 55th birthday. I don't know if that has any bearing.
  • crazyjoe
    •
    10 years ago
    That sucks. That is the same story I have heard other places also. Sadly the days of counting on a retirement from a company are becoming a thing of the past
  • crazyjoe
    •
    10 years ago
    I have a client that used to work for Budweiser. He had a good retirement package and the company changed ownership. The entire retirement program totaling several billion dollars was devided up and handed out to a hand full of top executives
  • ime
    •
    10 years ago
    In most plans and this is just a general trend i saw when i worked in that industry was most participants were eligible for a full unreduced pension with 85 points do usually age 55 with 30 years service. Make sure she calls whatever company handles her plan. You can message me if you want i'll help if i can.
  • jackslash
    •
    10 years ago
    That sucks. Companies are able to make their own rules about retirement and other benefits. Employees have few rights. It used to be that companies felt an obligation to act honorably toward their employees, but today companies will screw the employes over in order to increase share price and maximize executives' stock options.
  • lopaw
    •
    10 years ago
    With her so close to retirement it seems that it would be illegal. At a minimum unethical.
    The happiest place on earth, eh?
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    Yeah. I wonder how many pensions it took to fund Michael Eisner's $30,000,000+ annual package.
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    BTW, thanks ime. That's a good idea and I will pass it along when she starts breathing again.
  • shadowcat
    •
    10 years ago
    A lot of people don't like unions. But they stop companies from doing shit like this. I am drawing a pension from a company that went out of business in 1987. I finally retired in 2009 at the age of 67 while I was drawing full SS along with my regular salary. I intended to work until I was 70 but the company wanted younger, cheaper help. So that made my an offer that I couldn't resist...$85K bonus. Now I am also drawing a healthy pension from them. Thanks to my union contract.
  • Experimental
    •
    10 years ago
    I thought most of the people here were conservatives? You mean you guys don't understand that the United States is an employer's rights country, not employee rights? Unless there is a binding contract, they can terminate someone any time they want for almost any reason, a day before retirement if desired.
  • GACA
    •
    10 years ago
    Highly unlikely she's not going to be offered some package unless she seriously broke a major policy. I have friends that work at Disneyland in CA, and while Noone is going to say that is the happiest place to work, actually never mind... I think I do remember a similar story now.
  • farmerart
    •
    10 years ago
    I would suggest a 'shaming' campaign against Disney on social media. Disney is very sensitive to bad publicity.

    The 'shaming' campaign needs more than a discussion thread on tuscl to affect Disney.
  • motorhead
    •
    10 years ago

    "I am drawing a pension from a company that went out of business in 1987"

    Hmmm. Coincidence?





  • shadowcat
    •
    10 years ago
    motorhead- perhaps I should have said was merged into the company that I eventually retired from.
  • motorhead
    •
    10 years ago
    Shadowcat,

    My Dad was a 35 year Union guy so I won't debate you about their benefits. But for every "good" union story, I bet I can match it with a "bad" union story.

    When I was in college (Jimmy Carter was still President) the projectionists at one if the local movie theaters went out on strike. It's hard to believe that back then this was a union job help by adult men with families. They were paid a handsome wage. The union went out on strike and stood firm. They had such an arrogant attitude. "this is a skilled position, the theater owner will give in"

    LOL. It never occurred to the union leadership that the job could be done by a 16 year school kid for $1,35 minimum wage. It wasn't so skilled after all. They went out on strike my freshman year. When I left 4 years later, the union was still picketing the movie house. Hell, I bet if went back, they still would be on strike.
  • Electronman
    •
    10 years ago
    That's two strikes against Disney. The first strike was when they used their family-friendly values and economic clout to force all the strip clubs in the Orlando area to require that dancers airbrush all signs of a pussy and nipples off of their bodies and avoid physical contact with any male patron. Orlando strip clubs are among the most boring in Florida. Thanks for nothing Mickey.
  • SlickSpic
    •
    10 years ago
    That's messed up. It was probably Goofy who goofed that one.

    I agree Moto, that for many good Union strories, there's bad one's.

    For those who hate unions, read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" or learn about the Lowell, Mass and the way the textile industry treated workers.
  • PhantomGeek
    •
    10 years ago
    Disney has a history of letting people off in large waves, particularly with their movie and (IIRC) their television projects.

    Experimental, it really depends on the state. I know North Dakota here is a work-at-will state -- you can work as long as the employer wills it. I don't think all states follow that edict though.

    One of my tech school teachers used to belong to a union. She left it after they started talking about striking over a coffee pot.
  • PhantomGeek
    •
    10 years ago
    Good luck, ATACdawg. I hope that your sister and her co-workers can get some restitution and justice in this matter.
  • luv_women
    •
    10 years ago
    The termination probably doesn't effect the pension except marginally. She must be vested so she doesn't lose her benefit. Regarding age 55, that's typically the earliest age that pension payments can be started . She can also wait to start her pension after age 55 and likely receive a higher benefit. But, there are other retirement benefits that she needs to look into. Specifically are there are retirement health benefits and are they effected by this termination? That can be an important issue to understand.
  • magicrat
    •
    10 years ago
    "When I was in college (Jimmy Carter was still President) the projectionists at one if the local movie theaters went out on strike. It's hard to believe that back then this was a union job help by adult men with families. They were paid a handsome wage. The union went out on strike and stood firm. They had such an arrogant attitude. "this is a skilled position, the theater owner will give in"

    LOL. It never occurred to the union leadership that the job could be done by a 16 year school kid for $1,35 minimum wage. It wasn't so skilled after all. They went out on strike my freshman year. When I left 4 years later, the union was still picketing the movie house. Hell, I bet if went back, they still would be on strike."

    Sounds like Kramer and the bagel shop!
  • ATACdawg
    •
    10 years ago
    Hey, thanks for all of the input, guys. There is a lot of support and good input. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for being a sounding board!
  • bvino
    •
    10 years ago
    Carl Hiaasen (sp?) wrote a book about Disney many years ago and their shady real estate and employee practices. I have never spent a dime on a Disney product. Not ,that is, once I turned twenty. Disney is a fascist ,autonomous fiefdom in the middle of a sovereign state. I hope your sister can get some recompense for all those years. If not there are plenty of lawyers that have handled these sort of suits.
  • mjx01
    •
    10 years ago
    If 18 people are in a similar position, I think they should band together and sue Disney. Sounds like discrimination. Let a good lawyer get it out in the media the right way and I'd expect disney to grant vestment in order to shut down the suit/publicity. I've heard of people successfully suing for this kind of stuff with a few year until vestment.
  • Clubber
    •
    10 years ago
    Many, if not most pensions are insured by The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. I just went through it with the company that "retired" me at 55, when they offered a buy out. Takes the company off the hook for an open ended cost. Worked well for me and I took it. Of course, I am still working, so might not work so well for others.
  • sharkhunter
    •
    10 years ago
    I prefer 401K's over pensions. I don't think they can pull off that crap with a 401K but they can stop you from transferring money out of it and put a lot of restrictions on what you can buy and sell as long as you are working for the company. Then on certain funds, you get penalized a 2% penalty if you buy and sell within 90 days on certain funds. That is highway robbery. You can work for several years and then the company can decide to charge you $2000 against your life savings if you bought a fund and sold within 90 days. I believe they call it a fee to discourage such frequent trading. I heard about one guy close to retirement had close to 1 million in his life savings in his 401K. He bought a fund one day. Then the next day he decided it wasn't a good choice and sold. He got hit with a $20,000 or 2% charge. I think any broker would easily charge less than that for a single stock trade.
  • skibum609
    •
    10 years ago
    Legal opinion: if she is old enough she has one hell of an age discrimination lawsuit, especially if she was replaced by younger and less costly.
  • Clubber
    •
    10 years ago
    ski,

    Not so. When it happened to me I did see an attorney at my expense. He asked very few questions, but the main one he asked and was the kicker.

    Who were the ones fired, RIFed, laid off, whatever. When I told him, his comment was, "They covered themselves well." I questioned his comment. Included in the 7 of us, were the oldest, youngest, Americans, Cubans, Haitian, black. Pretty much every demographic in S. Florida. No discrimination, end of story. Now he did say he would proceed, if I wished, but that I likely had 0% chance of prevailing.
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