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Topics: Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Callum Jones
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is being sued by his former housekeeper after she alleges she contracted frequent urinary tract infections due to ‘unsanitary’ conditions in his home.
Mercedes Wedaa was hired by Bezos for a housekeeping role in 2019 that required her to "work around a family without being seen", according to the complaint.
Wedaa is suing the Amazon boss and two companies that manage his properties, Zefram and Northwestern, in a lawsuit in Seattle this week.
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The lawsuit alleges the housekeeper would have to work 14-hour shifts without breaks, and that there were no accessible bathrooms for her and the other housekeepers to use.
As the role apparently involved working without being seen by the Bezos family, Wedaa couldn't use the toilet as it was only accessible directly through the laundry room which led to the residence.
Instead, Wedaa claims the housekeepers would sometimes climb out of the laundry room window onto a path that led to a mechanical room and a downstairs toilet.
Due to the lack of accessible toilet, she claims herself and colleagues would spend large parts of the day unable to go to the toilet, which resulted in them contracting UTIs.
Wedaa's complaints do not stop there, though, as she lists many more in the lawsuit.
She claims that there were no room for housekeepers to rest, the Hispanic employees faced discrimination and housekeepers sometimes had to eat their meals in the laundry room.
She also claims she was wrongly dismissed after she was told she appeared 'unhappy' at work, which was having a negative effect on the team.
Wedaa's lawyer Patrick McGuigan said his client had "worked hard all her life, she is a very credible person and compelling evidence supports her claims".
Documents filed by McGuigan state: "Employers discriminated against Plaintiff because of her race, forced Plaintiff to work long hours without rest or meal breaks, exposed Plaintiff to unsafe and unsanitary work conditions, retaliated against and wrongfully terminated Plaintiff’s employment."
She is seeking damages in the amount to be decided at trial.
Brezos' camp have dismissed Wedaa's claims, saying that they 'lacked merit'.
The Amazon founder's lawyer Harry Korrell said that the former housekeeper filed the lawsuit after her demand for a £8 million payout were rejected.
He said: "Ms Wedaa made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper.
"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.
"Given their backgrounds, the suggestion that Bezos, Sanchez, or Northwestern LLC discriminated against Ms Wedaa based on her race or national origin is absurd."