Mercedes Wedaa’s charges include the fact that she occasionally had to climb out of a laundry room to reach a bathroom.
A former maid for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos claims that she and other employees were forced to work in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, including having to jump out of a laundry room window to use the restroom.
This week, Mercedes Wedaa filed a lawsuit in Seattle against Mr. Bezos and two corporations that allegedly handle his properties.
According to the complaint, she was employed in 2019 for a housekeeping position that required her to “work around a family without being noticed.”
Some of her stints lasted up to 14 hours without a break, during which there was “no adequately accessible bathroom for the housekeepers,” according to the lawsuit.
When the Bezos family was at home, housekeepers were only permitted to enter the residence to clean, meaning they could not directly access a bathroom through the laundry room door, which led exclusively to the dwelling.
Ms. Wedaa states that for around 18 months, residents were required to climb out of the laundry room window onto a corridor that led to a mechanical room and then downstairs to a bathroom.
According to the lawsuit, the absence of easily accessible restrooms prevented her and other housekeepers from using the restroom for extended portions of the day, resulting in frequent urinary tract infections.
Among Ms. Wedaa’s additional assertions were the following:
• There was no space for housekeepers to rest.
• Housekeepers sometimes ate their meals in the laundry room.
• Hispanic employees faced discrimination based on their race.
• She complained to her bosses about undocumented workers being brought in on a contract basis, lack of rest breaks, and unsafe working conditions.
• As a result of her complaints, she was demoted, despite never having been disciplined for job performance.
• She was wrongfully terminated, and told that she had been fired for
Ms. Wedaa seeks compensation in an amount to be determined at trial.
Mr. Bezos’s attorney, Harry Korrell, stated that Ms. Wedaa’s assertions were ludicrous and that she had only filed suit after her demand for a $9 million (£8 million) settlement was denied.
He added: “Ms. Wedaa earned an annual salary of over six figures and was the head housekeeper.
“She was responsible for her lunch and break times, and multiple restrooms and breakrooms were available to her and the other employees.
The evidence will demonstrate that Ms. Wedaa was terminated due to her performance.
Patrick McGuigan, Ms. Wedaa’s attorney, stated that his client has “worked hard her entire life, she is a highly credible person, and strong evidence supports her assertions.”
