Nanny Receives $1 Million for Unpaid Overtime

– December 26, 2012

A United Arab Emirates naval officer was ordered by a U.S. court this week to pay over $1 million to his former nanny, who was forced to work almost 2,000 hours of unpaid overtime.

The lawsuit was filed by Elizabeth Ballesteros, a native of the Philippines, who claimed she worked as a nanny and housekeeper for Arif Mohamed Saeed Mohamed al-Ali and his five children in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, for 12 weeks while he was attending the U.S. Naval War College in 2010.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that Ballesteros was owed back wages for 1,920 hours of unpaid overtime, and ordered al-Ali to pay her $261,000 for breach of contract and $840,000 in compensatory and punitive damages – a total of $1.1 million.

Al-Ali was charged with human trafficking in 2011, but was acquitted of the charge.