A former housekeeper for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos alleges she and different staff have been made to work in unsafe and unsanitary circumstances – together with having to climb out of a laundry room window to entry a toilet.
Mercedes Wedaa is suing Mr Bezos and two firms that allegedly handle his properties in a lawsuit filed in Seattle this week.
She was employed in 2019 for a housekeeping function that required her to “work around a family without being seen”, based on the grievance.
Some of her shifts have been so long as 14 hours with out breaks, throughout which period there was “no reasonably accessible bathroom for the housekeepers”, the lawsuit alleges.
When the Bezos household was at residence, the housekeepers have been solely allowed to enter the home to wash, that means they may not use the laundry door to entry a toilet straight, because it led solely to the residence.
Instead, they might generally need to climb out of the laundry room window onto a path that led to a mechanical room and downstairs to a toilet, a scenario that was in place for round 18 months, Ms Wedaa claims.
The grievance stated that – as a result of lack of easily-accessible bogs – she and different housekeepers spent massive elements of their day unable to make use of the bathroom, leading to frequent urinary tract infections.
Among Ms Wedaa’s different claims have been:
• There was no room for the housekeepers to relaxation
• Housekeepers generally ate their meals in a laundry room
• The Hispanic staff confronted discrimination due to their race
• She complained to bosses about undocumented staff being introduced in on a contract foundation, lack of relaxation breaks and unsafe working circumstances
• As a results of her complaints she was demoted, regardless of by no means having been disciplined over job efficiency
• She was wrongfully dismissed, informed that she appeared “unhappy” and this was having a destructive impact on the crew
Ms Wedaa is searching for damages in an quantity to be determined at trial.
Mr Bezos’s lawyer Harry Korrell stated Ms Wedaa’s claims have been absurd, including that she had filed the lawsuit solely after her demand for a $9m (£8m) payout was refused.
He added: “Ms Wedaa made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper.
“She was chargeable for her personal break and meal occasions, and there have been a number of bogs and breakrooms obtainable to her and different workers.
“The evidence will show that Ms Wedaa was terminated for performance reasons.”
Ms Wedaa’s lawyer Patrick McGuigan stated his shopper had “worked hard all her life, she is a very credible person and compelling evidence supports her claims”.
Source: information.sky.com”