Ex-housekeeper sues Bezos, claims discrimination

SEATTLE • A former housekeeper for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says she and other employees suffered unsafe working conditions that included being forced to climb out a laundry room window to get to a bathroom anytime the Bezos family was home.

In a lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle this week, Mercedes Wedaa, a longtime housekeeper for wealthy Seattle-area residents including the late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, claims she was discriminated and retaliated against when she complained about a lack of rest breaks or an area where staff could eat.

Harry Korrell, an attorney for Bezos, called the claims absurd and said Wedaa filed the lawsuit against Bezos and two companies that manage his properties and personal investments, Zefram LLC and Northwestern LLC, only after her demand for a US$9 million payout was rejected.

“Ms. Wedaa made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper,” Korrell said in an emailed statement.

“She was responsible for her own break and meal times, and there were several bathrooms and breakrooms available to her and other staff. The evidence will show that Ms. Wedaa was terminated for performance reasons.”

According to the lawsuit, Zefram hired Wedaa in September 2019 as “house co-ordinator” and she was initially the only housekeeper on staff, though contract employees were brought in occasionally. Another housekeeper was added about a year later, and by late last year, Wedaa was the lead housekeeper, supervising a handful of others.

Wedaa contends in the lawsuit she sometimes worked up to 14 hours a day but was never told she was entitled to breaks. She also says there was no room designated for the housekeepers to rest in and they sometimes ate meals in a laundry room.

When the Bezos family was home, the housekeepers were allowed to enter the house only to perform cleaning functions.

“Because there was no readily accessible bathroom, Plaintiff and other housekeepers spend large parts of their day unable to use the toilet even though they needed to,” the complaint says. “As a result of this, the housekeepers frequently developed Urinary Tract Infections.”

It isn't clear in the complaint how the housekeepers entered the laundry room to begin with, how long they were expected to remain in there if the family was home or whether they could use a restroom when they entered the house to perform cleaning tasks. Wedaa's Seattle-based attorney, Patrick Leo McGuigin, said he didn't have further details at this early stage of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit against Bezos seeks damages in an amount to be determined at trial.