A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against Disney by a white housekeeping manager who said he was discriminated against because of his race, gender and his use of the Family Medical Leave Act.
Michael Smith filed the lawsuit in 2013 when he was a housekeeping manager at Coronado Springs Resort. Smith said that his supervisor, who was an African-American woman, “favored other black female employees over him and disliked the fact he had taken medical leave to care for his ill wife.” His lawsuit alleges that he was fired after complaining.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the court records show that the judge did dismiss Smith’s claims of discrimination. The judge did, however, allow the claim of retaliation under the Family Medical Leave Act.
Interestingly, Smith’s supervisor, Maxcine Bell, sued Disney for discrimination in 1997. In that suit, four black employees sued the company, but the case was dismissed for “lack of prosecution, which means nothing was filed for a lengthy time.”
News source: Orlando Sentinel
