Housekeeper Nicky Diaz' hearing on wage claim against Meg Whitman delayed until Nov. 17

Posted By: Carla Marinucci
October 19 2010 at 02:12 PM

The Oct. 20 hearing that had been scheduled for Nicky Diaz Santillan, the undocumented ex-housekeeper to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, has been delayed until after the election -- to Nov. 17, according to state officials.

Diaz filed a claim with the California Department of Industrial Relations on Sept. 29 that alleges she is owed $6,210 for hours of work and mileage costs that Whitman did not pay her.

A spokeswoman for the agency said this week that the hearing for Diaz claim will be continued "because the claimant needs to provide more information" for the case to be fully evaluated. The department's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement will investigate the claim by contacting Whitman and performing an audit of payroll records before determining a course of action, officials have said.

Diaz, of course, is the housekeeper who worked for Whitman for nine years, from 200-2009; she said Whitman knew her status and fired her after she asked her help in arranging her immigration status. The former eBay CEO has said she hired Diaz through an employment agency, believed she had proper documentation, and fired her when she learned she was undocumented.

The November hearing will be at the state building in San Jose because it's the closest to Diaz's place of employment, which was Whitman's Atherton home.

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