Celebrity’s Nanny Sues for California Overtime – California Nanny Law Update

Los Angeles, CAA former nanny for Canadian singer Alanis Morissette has filed a California overtime lawsuit against the celebrity. The suit comes just a few months before California enacts its ‘Nanny Law’ (Bill AB 241), which will entitle domestic workers to overtime pay of time-and-a-half if they work more than nine hours a day.

Former Latina nanny Bianca Cambeiro was hired by the “You Oughta Know" singer and her husband, rapper Mario Treadway, in 2011 to care for their one-year-old son. Cambeiro said she worked 12-hour days (from 9pm to 9am) three to four days a week and was paid $25 an hour. She also had to work an occasional seven-day stint without overtime when Morissette went on tour, according to the lawsuit. Further, she was denied breaks and lunch breaks.

The overtime lawsuit also claims that last January, Cambeiro (she was the night nanny and instructed never to leave the child alone while he slept unless the parents were present) and the day nanny asked Morissette’s accountant why they were denied overtime. “We don’t do that,” the women were told, according to RadarOnline.com. It is not known whether Cambeiro was terminated or quit. Regardless, she is seeking $100,000 in damages and $30,000 in unpaid wages.

Bill AB 241 Signed

As of January 1, 2014 California nannies, housekeepers, personal attendants and private health care aides will be entitled to overtime of time-and-a-half if they work more than 9 hours in a day or 45 hours in a week. (Currently these workers are exempt from California’s overtime laws). Governer Brown signed the bill AB 241 on September 26, 2013, but the bill does not require meal and rest breaks. Brown vetoed a version of the bill last year that did include meal and rest breaks. As well, this new law is not permanent: under the sunset clause it will expire in 2017 unless extended by the California legislature.

Bill AB 241 comes into effect one year ahead of the federal statute that will provide overtime pay to home health workers. The federal bill, which comes into effect January 2015, does not cover privately employed in-home child care workers (nannies). However California is the third state to grant overtime pay to domestic workers (behind New York and Hawaii).