Black Nanny files Lawsuit alleging she was treated “like a slave”
A former nanny has filed a lawsuit against her New York employer for allegedly subjecting her to live in a “modern-day indentured servitude," where she was treated “like a slave,” according to Legal Reader.
A former nanny has filed a lawsuit against her New York employer for allegedly subjecting her to live in a “modern-day indentured servitude," where she was treated “like a slave,” according to Legal Reader.
A former nanny has filed a lawsuit against her New York employer for allegedly subjecting her to live in a “modern-day indentured servitude,” where she was treated “like a slave,” according to Legal Reader.
In the lawsuit, Cindy Carter said she formerly worked as a nanny for James Ragonese, who manages the Upper East Side eatery, Scarpetta, but that while there, Ragonese treated her like property and forced Carter, 44, to refer to him as boss man and “sleep in the pool shed.” Carter added, in the suit, that she was underpaid and is seeking unpaid wages to cover the overtime hours she routinely worked.
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According to Carter’s 16-page lawsuit, although she worked between 70 and 120 hours each week, she only received $300 a week payment during the entire three-year duration of her employment, which ended in February 2019, when she was reportedly fired.
In addressing the work environment, Carter said in her suit, “It hurt so bad I cried. I didn’t know what to do,” according to Legal Reader.
To top it off, Carter said that Ragonese prohibited her “from cooking food when Defendants’ were home, because, as Ragonese’s wife, Nicole stated, ‘Caribbean food is disgusting.”
Justin Marino, Carter’s lawyer, said the nanny was also made “to perform duties completely unrelated to being a nanny, such as plunging a toilet.”
In response to the lawsuit, Dustin Levine, the Ragonese’s family lawyer, said Carter only filed the suit in “retaliation for the couple having her arrested for keying their car.” Carter now faces misconduct charges for that incident. Levine added, “I think they’re completely exaggerated and unfounded. She lived in their home, they treated her as family.”
Carter is now living in a homeless shelter. The suit alleges the family “violated state and federal wage provisions and noncompliance with notice/record-keeping requirements, among other things.”
