After Donald Trump passed his “One Big Beautiful Bill” through Congress and signed it into law, his next course of action seems to be to roll back workers’ protections, which will directly impact cast members at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Universal theme parks, and SeaWorld theme parks. This isn’t a hypothetical, as this law was implemented after a tragic incident at SeaWorld.
In 2010, a SeaWorld employee was tragically murdered by a killer whale. After the incident, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined SeaWorld $70,000 for work safety violations. In its fine, OSHA said that SeaWorld had violated its “general duty clause,” which is used for jobs for which there are no specific safety regulations, such as employees at theme parks who have to interact with animals, athletes, and stage performers.
SeaWorld sued OSHA, saying the theme park was unaware of the hazards of working face-to-face with the killer whale. The case reached the U.S. Court of Appeals, which sided with OSHA 2-1. The dissenting judge was Brett Kavanaugh, a current Supreme Court Justice and Trump appointee.
Now, the Trump Administration is using Kavanaugh’s dissenting opinion to weaken the general duty clause, which would limit the ability of cast members to sue for things like heat-related illnesses, injuries while onstage, and injuries or death that occur while performing their official duty for Disney.
The new guidelines say, “to exclude from enforcement known hazards that are inherent and inseparable from the core nature of a professional activity or performance.” The language used in the new OSHA guidelines is similar to what Kavanaugh used in his dissent.
This is particularly dangerous for cast members at Disney World, where last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis worked to remove heat protections from workers, including cast members.
When the new OSHA rules go into effect, it will be more difficult for cast members or theme park employees who are injured or maimed to sue their employers, and it will be less likely that their employers will face fines for unsafe working conditions.
Paul Cox, who serves as acting business manager of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 631 in Orlando, told Orlando Weekly:
These new rules are reprehensible. A stagehand at Walt Disney World should have the same fundamental protections as an auto worker in Detroit. For far too long, those of us in the entertainment industry have lived by the saying, ‘The show must go on,’ but never should that come at the cost of our safety or our livelihoods.
Cast members and theme park employees have one more thing to worry about. Their jobs just got less safe, and they have fewer avenues of support if their employer’s negligence injures them.
What do you think of the new OSHA guidelines that could drastically impact cast members’ working conditions? Let us know in the comments.
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