The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $43.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by female employees in California who alleged gender pay discrimination.
The proposed settlement was filed on Monday (25 November) in Los Angeles County Superior Court. As part of the settlement, Disney did not admit fault.
A Disney spokesperson said in a statement (via CNN): “We have always been committed to paying our employees fairly and have demonstrated that commitment throughout this case, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter.”
Disney is setting up a fund to pay the plaintiffs and has agreed to hire an outside industrial consultant to provide training to executives overseeing the organisation of jobs.
Also, Disney said it would hire an outside labour economist to conduct pay studies of certain positions for the next three years, according to the settlement document.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2019 by LaRonda Rasmussen, who alleged she was being paid less than men with the same job title.
Around 9,000 women, who were former and current Disney employees, joined the lawsuit. Nine women, including Karen Moore, were named in the suit as representatives of these employees.
Around 9,000 women joined the suit
Rasmussen worked as a product development manager for Disney in Glendale, while Moore served as a senior copyright administrator for the company in Burbank.
The women in the class were non-union, salaried employees who worked at Disney’s theme parks, cruise ships, and film and TV studios.“I strongly commend Ms. Rasmussen and the women who brought this discrimination suit against Disney, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. They risked their careers to raise pay disparity at Disney,” Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson, said in a statement.
The settlement agreement still needs to be approved by a judge.
Images courtesy of Disney
