A federal judge dismissed two lawsuits brought by technology workers who alleged that Walt Disney Company conspired with outsourcing companies when they forced the workers to train their H-1B replacements before termination. The suits alleged the defendants violated federal racketeering statutes but Florida Judge Gregory Presnell ruled the plaintiffs’ evidence was insufficient to sustain their claims.
The two former technology workers, Dena Moore and Leo Perrero, filed their class-action suits in U.S. District Court in Orlando against Disney World and Cognizant Technology Solutions or HCL Inc. The complaints said the two were informed that they would be terminated as of Jan. 30, 2015, and that they had 90 days to train H-1B visa holders as their replacements. Refusal meant losing a bonus and severance pay.
The suits alleged the defendants circumvented provisions of the H-1B law requiring employers to show that visa holders “will not adversely affect the working conditions” of similar existing workers. That’s a violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes, the suit said, because "the conspiratorial objective was for (Cognizant or HCL) to misrepresent the nature of the employment of the H-1B visa holder in order to obtain Department of Labor approvals for such visa holders.” The H-1B law, under certain circumstances, also requires large outsourcing companies like Cognizant and to certify H-1B workers “will not displace any similarly employed U.S. worker.” But Disney fired the tech workers and hired the visa holders at "much lower" pay, the suit said.
Sara Blackwell of The Blackwell Firm in Sarasota, Fla. represented the tech workers. At the time, Blackwell told the Houston Chronicle, "No one has ever sued for RICO and common law fraud claims against a company and the contracting company…This is important because hundreds of thousands of Americans have been fired in the exact same manner Disney workers were fired over the past several years."
Judge Presnell, a Clinton appointee, rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants had made false statements to the Labor Department -- a key element of a RICO finding -- but left open the possibility that tech workers may file another case.
On the ruling, Perrero told the New York Times “This has become an effective business model in the IT industry where two companies can come together and wipe out American jobs without much fear of legal action…I just hope that greed isn’t taking our country in the wrong direction.”
In a statement, Sara Blackwell said, "These Plaintiffs were forced to train foreign replacements for 90 days then they were fired. The United States government has created immigration and other laws that have allowed American companies to fire Americans, bring foreigners in this nation to take American jobs, ship American jobs and to also send America's private banking and medical data overseas. These RICO lawsuits were only two of many different legal avenues we are employing to stand up for the rights of American workers and the security of the American people's data. We have not decided, at this moment, if we plan to file an Amended Complaint. However, this loss is one that demonstrates the need for legal protection of American workers and American data."
To date Congress has failed to reform the fraud-ridden H-1B program.
Read more in the New York Times or the judge's ruling in Perrero's case.
