Disney Reverses Decision to Fire Dozens of American Tech Workers for Foreign Replacements

12 Jun, 2015 by Warner Todd Huston

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After the massive Disney Corporation was slammed for planning to fire 35 American tech workers but forcing them to train their foreign replacements on the way out the door, the Mouse House has reversed course and announced it won’t fire the American workers after all.

We posted a story the other day about how Disney was firing the workers and replacing them with cheaper foreign workers. Disney took a LOT of criticism over the plan. But now…

Disney ABC Television Group reversed a decision to lay off about 35 tech workers this week, following recent reports that Disney laid off hundreds of tech workers in January after forcing them to train their replacements.

Two weeks ago, Disney ABC told a team of between 30 and 35 application developers they were being laid off, some at the end of July, and that their jobs were going to an IT contractor with large offshore operations, reported Computer World. But on Thursday, Disney ABC told the workers plans had changed and they would not be laid off.

Some of the workers were already in the process of training their replacements in “knowledge transfer” sessions — the same term used to describe how the hundreds of tech workers laid off in January trained their foreign replacements.

What is more likely, though, is that they will just fire all the American workers slower in ones and twos hoping no one will notice.