Photo: AP

Walt Disney World and Darden Restaurants (which owns restaurant chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster) both have happy-looking public faces regarding the health of the people they employ. But behind the scenes, they’re doing everything they can to deny people working in Florida the right to earn basic benefits like paid sick days on the job.

This all started in mid-2012, when lobbyists for Disney and Darden colluded with county commissioners in Orange County, FL (a text message plot now known as “Textgate“) to keep a paid sick days measure off the ballot. A Florida judge ruled the county commissioners acted illegally, and ordered the measure back on the ballot.

But wouldn’t you know it? The 2012 ballots had already been printed. That bought Disney and Darden some time – which is exactly what they wanted. Over the next few months, Disney and Darden lobbyists worked with Republican legislators in Florida to draft a law to prohibit local governments from enacting paid sick days legislation. That bill has now passed the Florida Senate and is headed to the House for final approval.

The Huffington Post reports family advocate group MomRising.org is spearheading the effort to fight back. From Huff Po:

[MomsRising] claims that this week, Disney World refused to accept a petition with 6,000 signatures demanding that the resort stop pushing legislation that stands in the way of earned sick time initiatives. Neither Darden nor Disney World responded to voicemails from The Huffington Post requesting comment.

Here’s the rub: Last year, Darden Restaurants paid its CEO $8,100,000, while the average employee in one of their restaurants earned just $25,463. That’s nearly $3,900/hour for the CEO while most of their employees scrape by on just over $12/hour – without basic protections like paid sick days or health care benefits. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio is even worse at Walt Disney Co., where CEO Rober Iger pulled down more than $19,000/hour last year, while his employees averaged $31.

Something to consider the next time you go out to eat or plan a family vacation.