An ex Disney business analyst is suing the 101-year-old company for age discrimination after being forced to retire last year.
What’s Happening:
- Deadline reports that Deborah Violante has filed a wrongful termination, discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company.
- The former business analyst was let go shortly after her 73rd birthday. Violante claims the company refused to give her an explanation as to why she was let go. After several attempts to receive that information, the company offered her a similar job to what she had prior. However, she has chosen to take the company to court.
- The July 23 filing to the Los Angeles Superior Court states Violante was doing contract work for the company starting in 2002 and eventually became a business analyst for the mouse in 2005. She held that position until 2023.
- The 34-page document reads “As Violante got older, she became subjected to a campaign of discrimination and harassment based on her age… Then, after Violante became injured and needed to take time off, Disney expedited its plans to terminate her and used the pretext of a mass layoff to terminate Violante from the company based on her age and disability. When Violante was 73 years old, Disney boldly – and illegally – unilaterally ‘retired’ Violante from the company even though she had never asked to retire and never authorized anyone to retire her.”
- Additionally, Violante notes she was one of the last members of her team brought back to work after the 2020 furlough.
- She claims she had issues getting vacation time approved to get knee surgery prompting one of her coworkers, Robert Jeff Downs, to ask “When are you going to retire?”
- The filing continues, stating “This comment was clearly age-related and also evidenced an animus towards Violante’s medical needs and limitations… Disney’s mistreatment of, and animus towards, Violante was so brazen as to be observed by other Cast Members, causing one of them to confide in Violante that it appears Disney wants her to quit or retire.”
- Violante was fired on May 22, 2023 as a part of the company’s 7,000 staff member layoff. She was the only member of her department let go.
- Violante pushed back from what was categorized as a retirement. She claims the company ignored her until she mentioned age discrimination. In result, the company pushed back her exit date until later in the year.
- Disney offered the analyst a new position, but she declined due to her concerns with age related discrimination within her workplace.
- The filing also states that she continued to push for a clear reason she was let go, but allegedly Disney did not give her one.
- On November 13th, 2023, Violante received an email from Disney congratulating her on her retirement.
- Disney has yet to comment on the suit.
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