PAs in the news

PAs in the US are lawyering up and taking their former employers to court over their unacceptable behaviour. First up is US songstress Mariah Carey who is being sued by 49-year-old Ylser Oliver, who was with Mariah for seven years and is accusing the singer of having forced her staff to work “on average approximately sixteen hours per day… for six to seven days per week.”

According to Ylser, she didn’t even have a chance to take a lunch break during such long days and, worse still, she wasn’t paid any overtime. The amount that Ysler is suing Mariah for is not disclosed, but given the US diva’s reported $520 million fortune, it’s likely to be a tidy sum.

Another celeb who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons is action movie hero Stephen Seagal. The star of films such as Under Seige has been taken to court by his former personal assistant, 23-year-old Kayden Nguyen, who has filed charges of sexual trafficking and harassment. In addition to Kayden, two former female employees are claiming they also experienced sexual harassment when they worked with the actor.

Seagal’s lawyer describes the case as “absurd”, stating that his client has no knowledge of the women and denies they were ever in his employ. However, Seagal has form when it comes to cosying up to members of his staff: his ex-wife Kelly Le Brock divorced him back in 1994 after he had an affair with the couple’s nanny.

Meanwhile in Ireland, a PA has been compensated for “false claims” made about the handling of her former boss’s financial affairs. Carolyn Murphy had sued Charlie Fitzsimons, the nephew of legendary Hollywood actress Maureen O’Hara, with whom she worked for 30 years.

The Irish Independent reports that Carolyn’s barrister told the court the defamation proceedings had been settled on the basis that Mr Fitzsimons had retracted a number statements he’d made questioning the former assistant’s integrity and honesty and accepted that such allegations were totally without foundation.