Disney wins lawsuit filed by Americans replaced by H-1B visa workers, but Cognizant, HCL America face new legal hurdle

Major win for the H-1B visa program.

In a major victory for the H-1B visa program – which has come under much scrutiny by anti-immigration critics, including the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump who has called for it to be debunked or reformed to ‘save’ American jobs – a federal judge in Florida has dismissed the claims of two former Walt Disney Company employees who claimed visa laws were broken by Cognizant Technology Solutions and HCL America in conspiring with Disney to replace them with foreign workers whom they were later forced to train.

Judge Gregory A. Presnell of the United States District Court in Orlando rejected the former workers’ arguments that Disney and the two contractors had colluded to make false statements when they applied for H-1B visas for the foreign replacements.

The judge found that “none of the allegedly false statements put at issue in the complaint are adequate” to sustain the former workers’ case, reported The New York Times.

Between 200 and 300 Disney IT workers were laid off last year, and some workers said they had to train their visa-holding replacements, reported Computer World.

Two affected employees alleged the parties engaged in a conspiracy to replace U.S. workers, in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

The plaintiffs, Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, were laid off early in 2015 from jobs with Disney in Orlando. In their final weeks on the job, they were required to show foreigners on H-1B visas, brought in by the outsourcing contractors mainly from India, how to do their work, reported the Times.

A spokeswoman for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Jacquee Wahler, said, “As we have said all along, this lawsuit was completely baseless, and we are gratified by the decision.”

The former workers’ cases hinged on their argument that the companies had violated clauses of the visa law requiring employers to show that hiring H-1B workers “will not adversely affect the working conditions” of other workers in similar jobs. The law also requires large outsourcing companies that employ many H-1B workers to certify in some circumstances that those workers “will not displace any similarly employed U.S. worker” within six months of applying for the visa.

The outsourcing companies argued that the law would apply to them only if the American workers who were displaced by visa holders they hired had originally been their employees, not Disney’s. Judge Presnell was persuaded by that argument, although he did not entirely reject the idea that the Americans were “adversely affected” by being fired, reported the Times.

Computer World reported that despite the setback to the fired workers, a new lawsuit alleging national origin discrimination may be filed in the next month, and an amended lawsuit may be filed by October 24^th.

As the RICO case was making its way through the court, the former Disney employees were also awaiting action by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They had filed discrimination complaints with the EEOC, a necessary first step in bringing a court action.

Sara Blackwell, the attorney for the Disney workers, said she has about 30 to 35 “right to sue” letters from the EEOC, clearing the way for a new case.

The discrimination claims are expected to include one based on national origin. It may argue that the U.S. workers were treated in a hostile manner by being forced to train foreign replacements, and were then terminated, resulting in discrimination against Americans.