Disney Lawsuit Claims California Maintenance Workers Required to Buy Their Own Tools

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Walt Disney Parks and Resorts faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges more than 100 current and former maintenance employees in California were illegally required to supply their own tools for work and deprived of the double minimum wage they were owed as a result. 

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The 24-page Disney lawsuit relays that all employers in California, including the Disneyland Hotel, by law must pay at least double the minimum hourly wage to employees required to use their own hand tools for the essential functions of their jobs. The complaint additionally claims that, as a result of the theme park operator’s apparent failure to pay hourly wages at the correct regular, overtime or daily rates, Disney has also failed to accurately itemize the maintenance workers’ wage statements, among other apparent violations of California labor law.

“Defendants explicitly required Mechanical Engineers to personally pay for tools and equipment for job performance. Defendants have intentionally failed and refused, and continue to fail and refuse, to pay Class Members, including [the plaintiff], double the minimum wages for all earned work.” 

The plaintiff, who started working for Disney as an assistant maintenance engineer in February 2022, further claims that he and other similarly situated employees were not provided with meal or rest periods, or in-lieu-of compensation, as mandated under California law. The case claims Disney Parks and Resorts was aware of this failure yet “willful[ly] and deliberate[ly]” failed to remedy the issue. 

The lawsuit also charges that for proposed class members who were fired from their employment, Disney failed to provide all unpaid wages in their last paycheck given that “they were not calculated correctly from the inception.” 

“To date, Disney has not paid Plaintiffs and Class Members all their wages due and payable to them, in an amount to be proven at trial,” the case summarizes. 

According to the complaint, Disney Parks and Resorts has also failed to pay correct overtime rates for hours worked in excess of eight each day. 

The Disney lawsuit looks to cover all persons who, within the last four years, are employed, or have been employed, in California by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and Disney Worldwide Services as maintenance engineers and expressly required to provide their own hand tools and equipment necessary for the performance of their essential job functions but have not been paid the required hourly rate of double minimum wage, have not been provided a rest period for every four hours worked, and have not been provided one hour’s pay or other compensation for each day in which rest periods were not taken. 

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