The headline of this story in many publications focuses on charging employees for costumes, but the violations go well beyond that.

Jennifer Calfas
Mar 17, 2017

Walt Disney Co. will pay more than 16,000 Florida employees a total of $3.8 million in back wages after charging them for their costumes, according to the Department of Labor.

The department reports Walt Disney Co. violated wage laws by deducting uniform or “costume” expenses from some employees' hourly pay. The company will now pay back wages to 16,339 employees from the Disney Vacation Club Management Corp. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts — including Disney World in Florida.

Disney violated the labor department’s minimum wage, overtime, and record-keeping provisions. By deducting money for costumes from some employees’ paychecks, these employees made below federal minimum wage (which is $7.25).

The department also found Walt Disney Co. did not keep proper payroll records and did not compensate some employees for overtime.

http://fortune.com/2017/03/17/disney-labor-department-costumes-employees...

Now, that's what I call a super predator.

If I am reading this correctly, the only "punishment" Disney must endure is (gasp!) paying its employees the wages and overtime that the law required Disney to be paying them all along! Whoa! Poor Disney! That must violate the Constitutional amendment against cruel and unusual punishment!

Not only that, but a Florida representative of the Dept of Labor put out a press release assuring us that such violations are common and Disney was very cooperative. You know, just like law enforcement puts out a press release about how common it is to have pot or liquor in a vehicle whenever such things are found during a "routine" traffic stop and how cooperative the driver was.

Please ardon all the sarcasm, but the naked greed of Disney nickel and dime-ing and cheating people working in those hot costumes in hot, muggy Florida got to me. (If paid in full, the minimum wage of $7.25 for a 40-hour week and a 52-week year would be well under $15,080 before payroll deductions of any kind. And they cheated people out of even this much!)

This is the same company that fights victims tooth and nail whenever one of its rides maims or kills someone and the same company that somehow manages to get the federal government to extend all copyright protections whenever the copyright on The Mouse is about to expire. And The Mouse may or may not have been stolen from someone else in the first place. Bottom line, these are horrid people, IMO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World
http://artlawjournal.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-law/
http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/1435 (hypocrisy of Disney regarding copyright law)