A 73-year-old woman is suing the Walt Disney Co., alleging she was terminated in 2023 because of her age and a medical disability in a move the company sought to define as retirement.
Deadline reports long-serving employee Deborah Violante’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit allegations against the 101-year-old company also include retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination, and harassment.
The career business analyst seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, Deadline reports.
Violante was 55 years old when she was hired and remained an employee for 18 years, holding the job until and when her employment was terminated.
“As Violante got older, she became subjected to a campaign of discrimination and harassment based on her age,” the suit alleges, before continuing, “Then, after Violante became injured and needed to take time off, Disney expedited its plans to terminate her and used the pretext of a mass layoff to terminate Violante from the company based on her age and disability harassment based on her age.”
Violante performed her job at Disney well, according to her complaint.
“Certainly, she had no reason to believe that her employment would come to an end other than by way of a voluntary retirement, a retirement when she was ready to announce it,” the suit states.
