Halsey has been slammed with a lawsuit by a former nanny for allegedly refusing to pay overtime wages and disability discrimination. The nanny claims that Halsey fired her after she requested time off — but the Without Me singer shot back— calling the claims “baseless” and accusing the nanny of being intoxicated while caring for her 11-month-old son.
The nanny, Ashley Funches, is suing for disability discrimination and retaliation after alleging that Halsey fired her for requesting time off for an emergency medical procedure "that would require her to take a leave of absence from work.”
The nanny alleges that the singer didn't immediately respond to her request. However, a few days later “without any warning or response,” when the singer finally got back to her, it was to terminate her employment.
According to the court documents, the woman was hired in 2021 as a "live-in personal attendant for her newborn child."
The lawsuit states that Funches "worked around the clock on consecutive days with little to no day of rest" during the "majority of her employment" with the singer. Last year, the nanny complained about her “long working hours” and not being paid the proper wages for her overtime work.
In response to the complaints, the suit states that Funches received a single payment of $5000 for her overtime work, but received "no explanation as to how the lump sum payment compensated" Funches for "all of her overtime hours to date."
The nanny is seeking an undisclosed amount for "unpaid wages, penalties, interest, attorneys' fees, and costs and expenses."
Halsey hasn’t responded to the suit, but a rep for the singer told TMZ that the “allegations are baseless.”
"This individual's employment was recently terminated in response to specific incidents in which Halsey's infant was left unsupervised in an unsafe location while under the nanny's care,” the rep claimed, adding, "it was discovered the nanny was intoxicated while the child was in her care."
The rep claimed that "at no time during this individual's term of employment with Halsey were any complaints even raised,” directly disputing the nanny’s claims.
They added: "Consequently, while Halsey is both saddened and disappointed by this turn of events, they feel it is important to refute these allegations publicly, as they take ableism and ethical working conditions very seriously."