'Without A Trace' Star Poppy Montgomery's Ex-Housekeeper Demands $100k In Court Over Alleged Unpaid Wages
Sept. 26 2022, Published 2:32 p.m. ET
Actress Poppy Montgomery and her husband Shawn Sanford are accused of stiffing their ex-housekeeper and now they are being dragged to court, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Miriam Trejo has sued the 50-year-old ex-Without a Trace star for failure to provide meal breaks, failure to pay all wages upon termination, and failure to pay all wages earned.
In the bombshell lawsuit, Trejo said she worked as a housekeeper for the couple from 2014 until she was terminated on May 11, 2022.
The employee said she worked at the couple’s home in Pacific Palisades, California. Her main responsibilities included cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the couple’s children.
Trejo said she was paid $25 an hour. She worked, on average, for five days per week, working on average eight hours per day, the suit said. The housekeeper started her shift at noon and ended at 8 PM.
At times, she said the couple had her working 13 hours per day. She said because she was a non-exempt employee she was entitled to overtime, meal period breaks, and rest period breaks.
Trejo said she was never provided uninterrupted, 30-minute meal breaks throughout the duration of her employment. “Further, she was unable to take her rest breaks because she was constantly needed to perform her duties,” the suit explained.
She said Montgomery and her husband “deterred” her from taking the breaks. The ex-housekeepers lawyers alleged, “[Trejo] has been deprived of her rightfully earned compensation for meal and rest break violations as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure and refusal to pay said compensation.”
Trejo said from 2014 until she was terminated in May 2022, she is owed $48,250 for her missed meal and rest periods. Further, the employee said they were not compensated for all wages owed that were due immediately upon termination.
The suit alleged Montgomery failed to pay $36k in unpaid wages and another $7k in overtime. The ex-employee also wants thousands more in penalties under California’s labor laws.
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Poppy and her husband, a Microsoft executive, have been together since 2011 and got married at Disneyland in 2014. The Australian-born actress starred in the hit CBS drama Without a Trace from 2002 to 2009 and later on Unforgettable on the same network.
