In October, 250 Disney employees were given pink slips and some of them were told that they would have to train the foreign employees that would take over their job. These jobs are being transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers. They were brought in by an outsourcing firm located in India.
These employees are some of the most important in how things flow at Disney World. They are data/tech employees. They keep computers running smoothly so that your resort reservations and ticket purchases do not go poof and disappear into cyberspace.
Disney execs said that the layoffs were part of a reorganization, and that the company actually opened more positions than it eliminated. They claim they actually added 70 tech jobs.
These visas are often used to bring in immigrants to do the work of Americans for less money. There are a limited number of these types of visas given every year, but they are in high demand.
Disney World does employee about 74,000 cast members. So the tech employees that were laid off were a very small part of that, but any layoffs are never a good thing! However Disney did not just leave them hanging. Employees that were laid off were allowed a 3 month transition with resume coaching to help them possibly get other jobs within the company, Disney executives said. 120 of those laid off did end up with new jobs at Disney, and about 40 retired or left the company before the end of the transition period was over. Sadly, 90 of them did not find new Disney jobs. Disney did not offer retraining and most of the employees that did find other positions within the company were at lower wages. They did offer a “stay bonus” of 10 percent of severance pay if they remained for 90 days. But the bonus was contingent on “the continued satisfactory performance of your job duties.” For most employees that meant staying and training their replacement.
Former employees said many of the new employees/immigrants who they were training were much younger with limited computer skills and they did not speak English fluently and had to be taught the very basics of the work.
Have you heard of the Partnership for a New American Economy? Well, Robert Iger, is a co-chair with Michael R. Bloomberg, and Rupert Murdoch. They push for an overhaul of immigration laws, which includes an increase in these types of visas.
I am the first to say how much I love all things Disney, but this just makes me feel not so magical! What do you think?
We hope the best for the laid off employees!
Wishing you Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust
Maria
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I totally hate this. I worked for a company that also dealt with India “technology”, and let me tell you, the levels of even their so called experts was way below our entry level technology. I’ve lost a job to outsourcing and it was inexcusable. Just to save a few bucks. Well I for one think this is a very poor choice and can see Disney IT becoming the next Dell with all their Technical Support being a call center in India. Just another thing Disney does that pisses me off.