Ex-Assistant's Suit Against Lady Gaga Case Study Sample

This case involved Lady Gaga, being sued by her ex-assistant, Jennifer O’Neill for not considering paying her for overtime worked. The latter alleged that the pop icon owed her hundred thousands of dollars due to the fact that she had only been receiving monthly salaries without unpaid overtime. The assistant had worked for 7, 168 hours of overtime without receiving any payment for them. Gaga needed the assistant almost for 24 hours a week to accompany her in jets, stadiums, homes, yachts, hotels, ferries, tour buses and trains. In this regard, she could not even break for her personal pursuits like eating, or at times to sleep. Although O’Neil never had her own hotel room, she had to share with Gaga to address her needs well.
According to the US District Judge Gardaphe, the ex-assistant is factually entitled to be paid for the overtime. This can be confirmed factually by the Law from the fact that anybody who works for amount of time over 40 hours per week is entitled for overtime payment. Moreover, by the fact that Lady Gaga’s entertainment firm earned more than $500,000 per annum, as revenues, O’Neil was entitled to be paid. According to Forbes Magazine, Lady Gaga earned approximately $80 million in the fast six months of the year 2013. Although Lady Gaga had mentioned that it was the nature of her work that forced her to engage the assistant on call for 24 hours, the law requires that any amount of time above 40 hours in a week should be paid for. Free accommodation was necessary for the assistant to address her needs since Lady Gaga’s preparations to performances began at home. According to the judge, from the facts, the case was to proceed to the trial stage. Although Gaga conceded for having misclassified O’Neil as overtime exempt, she pleaded that her overtime calculations be done on flexible framework. However, the judge stated that for the plea of flexible framework to be successful, Gaga was to submit all material facts that could facilitate it.