US

Blacklist Update: Evidence Piles Up, Disney Maintains Denial

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
Font Size:

Evidence Disney put the American tech workers it laid off in January on a “blacklist” that disqualified them from hire for contracting work continues to build, although Disney continues to deny such a list ever existed.

Two more of the laid off workers have provided The Daily Caller News Foundation evidence corroborating the initial report that Disney blacklisted the workers from contracting work with Disney for one year, after laying them off and forcing them to train their foreign replacements.

Privately, Disney “loosened the reigns” on the policy following that report, emails obtained by TheDCNF from a recruiting firm show. But Disney has denied and continues to deny the blacklist ever existed, and blames the growing pile of evidence to the contrary on “misinformation.”

“As we have previously stated, there is no policy preventing outside vendors from hiring our former employees,” Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty told TheDCNF.

“We have reached out to vendors to clarify any misinformation, and encourage any vendor or former employee who has questions to contact us directly,” she added.

A total of now three accounts from workers affected by the layoffs contradict Disney’s statement — each of them encountered the blacklist, from as early as January to as recently as June. They spoke to TheDCNF on condition of anonymity for legal reasons and job protection. (RELATED: Zuckerberg Ally On Americans Losing Jobs To Foreign Labor: ‘This Is What This Whole Country Is Built O’)

The laid off worker in the initial report had learned of the blacklist when he was told to apply for a contracting job with Disney, but was then told he’s out of the running because he was part of the so-called restructuring in January.

A second worker had a similar experience with an IT recruiter, who encouraged him to apply for a position but later said he’s disqualified from consideration because he was laid off in January.

That worker was being recruited by a manager at the contracting firm, who was in contact with his recruiter. “He said to go ahead and submit,” the recruiter initially told the worker in emails obtained by TheDCNF. “He’s got a request to HR for the approval and he doesn’t expect it to be denied.”

He submitted the application, but it was rejected when the recruiter ran it through Disney’s HR system, Zero Chaos, which contractors use to place jobs. “Just heard,” the recruiter said in a follow up email to the worker. “All cast members who were recently laid off are not eligible to come back to Disney as contractors for a period of 1 year.”

“Stupid rule,” the recruiter added, including the error message from Zero Chaos in the email:

*  Resource does not match eligibility requirements for return Cast Members. Must be non-Disney status for a duration of 1 year.

A third worker affected by the layoffs told TheDCNF he took an involuntary early retirement, in part because he was told he could come back as a contractor and was in process of making that happen. He had been with Disney for over 10 years and had great performance reviews. He had been in talks initiated by Disney with the contractor Disney hired, but that ended abruptly two weeks after the layoffs.

The recruiting firm reiterated the same policy the other two workers encountered: “There has to be a one year period between working for Disney in a technical position and being hired again for Disney (as a contractor) in another technical position,” the recruiter said in an email obtained by TheDCNF. “This is a new rule we just found out about today.”

“I’m not sure why they decided to do this,” the recruiter added. (RELATED: Disney ABC Cancels Plans To Layoff Dozens Of Tech Workers)

When the worker contacted Disney HR months ago, he was told there is no such policy and they would investigate. “They don’t want those specific layoff’s back because THAT would give the appearance those roles were still needed and the people still useful,” the worker told TheDCNF in an emailed comment.

The contractor Disney hired to replace the laid off tech workers relies on the H-1b visa program to hire temporary foreign workers. At the request of a bipartisan group of senators, the Obama administration is investigating suspected abuses of the program by outsourcing firms used by Southern California Edison to similarly replace hundreds of tech workers.

Following the more recent reports of the Disney layoffs, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat who supports the H-1b program, has called for a similar federal investigation into Disney and its contractors. (RELATED: Rubio Breaks Silence On H-1b Visa Program)

Follow Rachel on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel