Eisner Settles Handyman Discrimination Lawsuit
Controversy continues to circle the current Disney CEO Bob Chapek. However this week, the contention actually surrounds former CEO Michael Eisner. According to court papers filed on Friday, Eisner reached a tentative settlement with a former maintenance worker who alleged he was wrongfully fired due to his age and disability.
The lawsuit stems from the maintenance and upkeep required at Eisner’s five Malibu estates. First filed in December 2020, the suit alleged wrongful discharge, harassment, disability and age discrimination, retaliation and state Labor Code violations. The plaintiff, Oscar Rene Linares, was hired to power wash driveways, clean windows, paint, sand, change and various handyman jobs and had been performing his duty for over 13 years, according to the suit.
In reports regarding the suit, Linares, who only notes his age as over 40, said that he suffered a heart attack in 2018. After recovering, he began receiving harassing comments from his supervisor. According to the suit, supervisors said that he was “too old” and repeatedly asking him when he planned to retire. In March 2020, Linares told his boss that he needed time off for knee surgery. A month later when he declared he was ready to return, he was told to stay home in accordance with the California stay-at-home order for coronavirus despite his colleagues returning to work.
Several months later, he was still not given clearance to return and instead was given a severance letter stating his position had been eliminated. In the lawsuit, Linares stated he was “shocked that he was terminated,” and “felt that it was discriminatory, given the age-biased comments he had been enduring,” according to an article by KNX News on Audacity. To make matters worse, he also claims that his position was not eliminated and was instead filled by a younger employee. The final straw for Linares occurred when he was given four weeks severance instead of the six months that he was promised. There are no details on the conditions of the settlement and Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane, are listed as the only defendants.
Eisner’s Past Labor Lawsuits
Eisner is no stranger to labor disputes as he endured several high-profile lawsuits during his time at Disney. In 1993 after President of Disney Studios Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash, Eisner refused to move the next-in-command, Jeffrey Katzenberg, into his role. This resulted in Katzenberg resigning from the company and Eisner refusing to pay him his contractual bonus. The case was settled in court for $280 million dollars, and Katzenberg went on to found Disney rival Dreamworks Pictures.
Later in 1996, Eisner hired his friend, Michael Ovitz, into that same role with little to no involvement by the Disney Board of Directors. Because of the hostility of the board, Ovitz lasted just 14 months and was let go with a severance package worth $138 million dollars. This resulted in a stockholder derivative suit that didn’t come to a resolution until 2006. In the end, the court ruled that Eisner had not violated his duty of care to the stockholders.
Feature Image Credit: Disney