Update for February 13-20, 2006
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News and Views
Labor concerns
The labor situation at Disneyland isn’t necessarily getting any better, despite a true off-season finally setting in at Disneyland for the last few weeks. Now that just about every cast member is working extra shifts every week, a new edict from management has some Disneyland cast members upset about even more changes to human resources policies affecting hourly employees.
In meetings this past week, which included what one CM referred to as a “belittling demonstration of how to use a time clock,” cast members learned that they would no longer be allowed to “give away” scheduled shifts. Cast members may still trade days off with another cast member, but may no longer simply give up the hours to another CM.
While some cast members characterize this policy change as “stupid” or worse, Disney appears to be making the change to prevent part-time employees from earning a de facto full-time status by taking on hours originally assigned to full-time employees. According to cast members familiar with staffing, it is not unusual for part-time employees to wind up working 5 or even 6 days a week by taking a shift from one or more full-time cast members. Presently, Disney classifies hourly employees as full-time if they work at least 32 each week, meaning that a cast member scheduled for 40 hours can give away one shift every week and still qualify as full time. Conversely, a part-time cast member scheduled for 24 hours a week could easily move themselves into the full-time category by picking up just one extra shift a week. Under the new policy, trading shifts rather than giving them away results in neither an increase or decrease in scheduled hours for each employee. Full-time cast members will be required to actually work their scheduled hours, and it is less likely that a part-time employee can earn full-time status by picking up dropped shifts.
The reason that this is important to Disney management is that the company grants status and benefits to cast members based on the number of hours they average over a specific period of time, and the staffing shortages of last fall saw many a part-time cast member working well in excess of 40 hours a week. California law also grants additional protections, including unemployment benefits, to employees who meet their employer’s definition of full time status. In other words, two employees working 32 hours per week is more expensive for Disney than one employee working 40 and another working 24.
As with the furor over the increased enforcement of the park’s attendance policy, this controversy may have full-time employees outside of Disneyland sectors scratching their heads. Most companies require their full-time hourly employees to actually work full time; many require employees to use vacation or sick time to make up for missed hours. But given that Disneyland will meet with the unions representing a large number of their cast members in the coming weeks to hammer out a new contract, some CMs—even those who support the new policy—question the wisdom of making a change that is likely to be unpopular with the CMs who will have to ratify the new agreement. Regardless of whether the change is reasonable, people are never happy about changes that make things more restrictive.
This chatter just adds to the noise about a possible strike after the labor agreement between Disneyland and the United Food & Commercial Workers union expires on March 15. UFCW members at DCA have been working under an expired agreement since last year and having both contracts expired at the same time is seen as a bargaining position for the union. While an immediate strike (if one happens) is unlikely, it wouldn’t be suprising to see either side play for press attention on March 10, when focus will be on the Walt Disney Company’s annual shareholder meeting that day.
Meanwhile, much to their annoyance, managers around the park at the Team Disney Anaheim corporate offices are being cross-trained on various essential park duties to try and cover for an absent work force.
