A 73-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co., alleging that she was fired in 2023 due to her age and health disabilities, even as management refused to explain why she was the only one in her department who was fired.
Deborah Violante’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also includes allegations of retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.
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Violante was 55 at the time of his hiring and had been an employee for 18 years, working as a business analyst until he was laid off.
“As Ms. Biollante grew older, she was subjected to age-based discrimination and harassment,” the lawsuit alleges. “Subsequently, after Ms. Biollante was injured and required to take time off work, Disney expedited its plans to terminate her employment, using the pretext of a mass layoff to terminate Ms. Biollante from the company based on her age and to subject her to age-based disability harassment.”
According to her lawsuit, Violante performed her duties well at Disney.
“Indeed, she had no reason to believe that her employment would be terminated in any manner other than voluntary resignation, i.e., resignation at the time she was ready to announce it,” the lawsuit states.
She believes Violante’s age played a role because he was furloughed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was one of the last members of the department to return to work when the furlough ended, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff repeatedly missed meals and breaks while trying to catch up on backlogged work, and then suffered a fall in April 2021 and had to undergo knee surgery. Violante further allegedly delayed the surgery in order to keep up with the workload.
Disney management then made it difficult for Violante to take time off for medical appointments, with one supervisor asking her “when would you quit?” the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, a Disney human resources representative told Violante in May 2023 that she would be terminated as part of a larger internal layoff, but the plaintiff later learned that she was the only person in her department who lost her job, despite her years of service.
According to the lawsuit, management considered Violante’s firing to be a resignation, even though he had not requested it.
“Furthermore, over the years I have been subjected to numerous hurtful remarks and insinuations regarding my age and questions about when I plan to retire,” Violante wrote in an email to management, according to the lawsuit.
Last September, Violante was offered another business analyst position, but she continued to defend her firing and feared she would face further discrimination and harassment if she returned to work, the lawsuit states.
“To this day, it remains unclear what criteria Disney used to evaluate her performance, especially considering that no one ever notified Violante of any deficiencies in her performance,” the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, Violante received an email in November congratulating her on her “retirement.” The suit also states that the plaintiffs believe Violante was the victim of discrimination based on her age and disability.
According to the lawsuit, Violante suffered loss of income and emotional distress as a result of losing her job.
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