NEWS: Disney Faces Lawsuit From Employees Over Florida Relocation

The Walt Disney Company is no stranger to lawsuits.

©Disney

The company has been sued by everyone from Disneyland Magic Key holders, visitors who’ve been injured on Disney World property, actors from Disney-owned movies and films, visitors of Disney World restaurants, film financiers, and more. Now, the company is being sued by Cast Members over the Florida relocation that Disney canceled.

Back in 2021, Disneyt an update! Back in 2021, Disney bought nearly 60 acres of land in Lake Nona near Orlando to build a new campus for employees. in the Lake Nona area of Orlando to build a campus for new employees. The plan was to relocate more than 2,000 professional employees from California to Orlando.

The project would’ve brought thousands of jobs to Central Florida and would have been a $1 billion investment in the local economy. It seemed the project was moving forward, at least as late as March 2023, but in May 2023, Disney announced that the project had been officially canceled.

Now, according to The L.A. Times, Cast Members who sold their homes in California to move to Florida are suing Disney over the canceled relocation. The two plaintiffs, who still work for Disney, allege that Disney fraudulently convinced them to relocate to Florida and led them to believe they would lose their jobs if they didn’t. Both agreed to relocate to Florida in November 2021. The lawsuit also alleges that Disney told those employees they would only have 90 days to “consider and make the best decision that’s best for them.” But later, Disney canceled the relocation.

Once Disney announced the canceled relocation, the company said, “Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus.”

Disney acknowledged that some employees had already made the move and that it would discuss the situation individually with each of them, as well as work with them to make plans to move them back to California.

Those affected employees were given compensation packages, but the lawsuit alleges the compensation wasn’t adequate. Part of the problem is that Orlando home prices fell after Disney canceled the project, while home prices in Los Angeles went up. The lawsuit also alleges that some of Disney’s California employees refused to move and some of those are still employees with the company.

We’ll keep an eye out for more details about the lawsuit, so check back with AllEars again soon for more.