Sony Takes The High Road And Settles Animation Wage-Theft Lawsuit

Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks have reached a settlement with animation industry workers in the ongoing class action lawsuit against major feature animation studios alleging wage theft. Reports say the settlement will be around $13 milion.

In a Case Management Statement filed last Friday, the plaintiffs, who are the animation workers, stated that they will file a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement later this week. That motion should more fully describe the details of the settlement, which follows on the heels of the settlement reached at the end of March between the plaintiffs and Blue Sky Studios.

Plaintiff Robert Nitsch, Jr., a former Dreamworks Animation visual effects artist, first filed his lawsuit in September 2014 and was soon joined by plaintiffs Georgia Cano and David Wentworth. After initially having their suit thrown out based on statute of limitations issues, the plaintiffs managed to revive the case in August 2015. The plaintiffs are now requesting that Judge Lucy Koh schedule the hearings on the settlement with Sony to occur on the same day as the hearing on the settlement with Blue Sky, currently scheduled for June 16.

Deadline further reports that the Sony companies have agreed to pay in the neighborhood of $13 million to the class. In its own settlement, Blue Sky Studios agreed to a settlement in the amount of $5.95 million. The difference could be due to a number of factors, such as the number of employees at each studio, as well as Sony’s settlement representing two different companies: Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) and Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI).

What was once a united front among the major studios in battling the lawsuit appears to be crumbling. As Deadline points out, it would be particularly advantageous if Dreamworks Animation settled at this point, too, because a “settlement would provide a regulatory advantageous clean slate moving into the closing stages of the sale.”

SPA, which makes the Hotel Transylvania franchise, is currently scheduled to release three films next year: Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Emoji Movie, and The Lamb. SPI creates not only the animation and vfx for the Sony animated features, but also created the animation for The Angry Birds Movie and provided vfx for films like Edge of Tomorrow, Oz The Great and Powerful, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Further details on the Sony settlement will be reported as they become available.