Walt Disney Co. continues to face fallout from its scuttled plans to move 2,000 California employees to a proposed Florida campus — a controversial decision the company reversed last year following the return of Chief Executive Bob Iger.

In 2021, then-CEO Bob Chapek and parks and experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced plans to relocate employees supporting Disney theme parks and resorts — including the celebrated Imagineers — to a planned $1-billion office park in the Lake Nona area of Orlando, Fla. The move was designed for Disney to take advantage of Florida tax credits, but the cross-country shift was deeply unpopular among employees who were asked to uproot their lives in Southern California.

Now some Disney employees are suing the company over the canceled relocation.

According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Disney in Los Angeles County Superior Court, numerous workers heeded the company’s calls, dutifully sold their homes in the Los Angeles area and moved to Central Florida.

Plaintiffs Maria De La Cruz and George Fong, both current Disney employees, alleged they were fraudulently induced to relocate to Florida by being led to believe that they would lose their jobs if they turned down the move. De La Cruz and Fong agreed to the relocation in November 2021. The lawsuit said Disney told affected employees they would have 90 days to “consider and make the decision that’s best for them.”

De La Cruz, a vice president of product design, sold her Altadena home in May 2022.

“Mr. Fong also sold his home, which was a particularly painful decision because it was the family home he had grown up in and inherited,” the lawsuit said. Fong is a creative director of product design; his family home was in Los Angeles.

But a year after they had sold their houses and moved, Disney canceled the project.

A Disney spokesman did not immediately provide comment.

The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks to represent “all current and former California Disney employees who relocated from California to Florida as a result of Disney’s announcement of the Lake Nona Project.” It seeks unspecified punitive damages.

Initially, Disney envisioned it would eventually save money on the $1-billion Lake Nona development, due to lower worker costs in Florida. It was also drawn by tax credits offered by the state for relocating businesses.

But the project became swept up in Disney’s legal and culture war wranglings with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a one-time presidential hopeful.

One month after Disney filed a federal 1st Amendment lawsuit against the Sunshine State and its governor, it pulled the plug on the Lake Nona development. (The legal matters have since been resolved, and Disney has affirmed its commitment to continue a massive Florida parks expansion). The project’s cancellation also coincided with significant cost-cutting across the company.

Disney explained the reversal in a May 2023 statement: “Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus.”

Disney, at the time, acknowledged that some employees had already moved. The company said it would discuss the situation with individual employees, including making plans to move them back to California.

But compensation packages offered to affected employees by the company were inadequate, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit said numerous Disney workers refused to make the move. Some remained employed by the company.

After Disney reversed its plans, home prices in the Orlando area fell, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Jason S. Lohr of the San Francisco law firm, Lohr Ripamonti & Segarich.

Since 2022, home prices in Los Angeles have climbed, and higher interest rates complicated the financial picture, the lawsuit said.

Fong has since bought a home in South Pasadena that has “considerably less square footage than his previous Los Angeles home,” the lawsuit said. De La Cruz is in the process of moving back to California.

Times staff writer Stacy Perman contributed to this report.

Netflix said it will open retail complexes next year in Dallas and in King of Prussia, Pa., a major step for the streaming giant as it continues its push into in-person experiences as a way to capitalize on popular franchises such as “Bridgerton.”

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company on Tuesday announced the locations of its new Netflix House venues, which will sell food and merchandise based on the streamer’s programs. The spaces will also let visitors walk through a replica of a “Bridgerton” set or compete in a challenge from “Squid Game.”

“At Netflix House, you can enjoy regularly updated immersive experiences, indulge in retail therapy, and get a taste — literally — of your favorite Netflix series and films through unique food and drink offerings,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said in a post on Netflix’s promotional website Tudum.

The two stores will each take up more than 100,000 square feet, filling spaces that were previously occupied by department stores.

Netflix declined to share information on the length of the leases or amount of investment in the two Netflix House locations.

Lee said Netflix House “represents the next generation of our distinctive offerings,” adding that the company has already launched more than 50 experiences in 25 cities.

Fans have flocked to Netflix events centered on its most popular titles, including “Bridgerton,” with some fans dressing up for balls that resemble the ones depicted in the Regency-era alternative history romance series.

Netflix uses such events to promote its content and keep fans engaged between seasons.

In addition, Netflix has expanded its retail offerings over time, selling “Bridgerton”-themed candles and soaps at retailers such as Bath & Body Works and opening pop-up eateries.

In a surprisingly strong economic report, California employers stepped up their hiring in May and the statewide unemployment rate dropped for the first time since the summer of 2022, the government reported Friday.

Employers in the state added 43,700 jobs last month across a broad spectrum of industries, breaking from the recent pattern of lagging behind the nation in job creation. In April, the California economy produced only 4,100 jobs.

The state Employment Development Department noted that the May increase in payrolls accounted for 16.1% of the country’s overall gains of 272,000 jobs, exceeding California’s 11% share of employment nationally.

However, manufacturing in California continued to shed jobs, as did the high-paying information sector, which includes the struggling motion picture industry.

Last month California’s unemployment rate edged down to 5.2%, from 5.3% in April, even as the U.S. jobless figure went up a notch in May to 4%. Until last month, the state’s unemployment rate had been gradually rising since reaching a low of 3.8% in August 2022.

In April, California had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, reflecting weakness in some of the state’s leading sectors, including technology, information and professional services.

The improvement in May, though just one month, was a welcome relief to officials after the state’s recent subpar performance and amid signs that the national economy is slowing down. Consumer spending is softening and job openings in California and other states have been shrinking in recent months.

California’s job gains last month continued a pattern of solid growth in health services and at government offices. Leisure and hospitality businesses also added to their payrolls, despite the pressure of higher minimum wages, especially at fast-food restaurants.

Significantly, several sectors that had been weak — professional services, trade and transportation, and financial services — also saw job growth last month.

“Before state government celebrates too widely, it is worth noting a few of the job dynamics not in the state’s press release,” said Michael Bernick, former director of the state EDD.

He noted that California has an outsized number of unemployment claims — almost double the state’s share of the U.S. labor force population. And a large portion of the job gains last month were in industries that offer lower wages and fewer hours.

What’s more, job gains are still coming disproportionately from publicly funded sectors such as healthcare and social assistance as well as government agencies, Bernick said. He and other analysts worry that California’s large budget deficit will spill over to the broader economy in the coming months.