There are several stakeholders involved in the Disney lawsuit. They include immigrant employees, two companies that were involved in global consulting, HCL and Cognizant, and two Americans who were former employees at Disney. The two American employees, as stakeholders, felt the impact of the actions by the film company once it brought immigrant employees to replace them at their place of work. The other two stakeholders, the immigrant employees, and the global consulting companies affected the actions by Disney by providing alternatives facilitating the replacement of the two Americans already working in the company.
The issue resulting in the lawsuit claims against Disney was its collusions with the two global consulting companies- HCL and Cognizant- to replace American employees. The employees had to train the immigrant workers before leaving the job (Preston 1). In case they decided to quit without training the immigrant replacements, they would have to miss their bonuses as well as the severance pays (Preston 2). In addition, the American employees who were laid off were prohibited from applying for jobs at other outlets in the company. The two American employees from Disney had an issue with their employer colluding with HCL and Cognizant to break the law by channeling in immigrant workers into the United States by means of temporary H-1B visas. The three companies executed their plans bearing in mind that some American employees would be supplanted. The selfish act of the three companies was an attempt to save some money that goes to the highly paid American workers. The result of their actions was an addition to the high numbers of jobless, hopeless, and poor American citizens.
The three companies, HCL, Disney, and Cognizant broke the rules designed by Congress regarding H-1B workers. The rules required that the foreign workers brought into the United States be highly skilled professionals. The immigrants that HCL and Cognizant brought into Disney did not meet the requirements set out by Congress. They had to undergo training for a few months under the supervision of American workers who would later be laid off due to their comparatively high salaries (Preston 4). Additionally, Disney violated the declarations that all companies make to the Department of Labor that any hiring made involving immigrants would not affect any of the working conditions of the American citizens employed under the same terms.
The law requiring that all H-1B immigrant employments should not affect the American workers’ job conditions has been violated over the years. Disney’s lawsuit is one of the many cases, only that is has been put in the spotlight. As such, the Department of Labor should ensure that such cases do not fall by the wayside, making a mockery of justice. It is unethical for hardworking and experienced American workers to be replaced with cheap and inexperienced labor. The denial of severance pays to any worker at the end of their service is also ethically wrong. Financially, issues such as that at Disney have negative consequences on the country’s economy because joblessness and the use of cheap labor in many companies benefit only the owners of the companies at the expense of American citizens. Consequently, once employees are laid off, the amount of taxes remitted to the federal government reduces. Their investments are also affected due to the withdrawal of supporting capitals. It is, therefore, important that companies consider the effects of their actions on all stakeholders and to the country in general.
Works Cited
Preston, Julia. “Lawsuits claim Disney colluded to replace U.S. workers with immigrants.” The New York Times 25 January 2016. Print.
