BERKELEY — Louise Gund, a Tony Award-nominated Broadway producer and local billionaire heiress, is being sued for alleged failure to pay wages by her former private pilot and flight attendant.
Gund, who has served on the boards of the Berkeley Community Chorus and San Francisco Opera, is being sued by two former employees, pilot K. Wade Adams and flight attendant Wendy Walsh, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court by attorney Lawrance Bohm.
“While the world may have admiration for Ms. Gund as a patron of the arts and an environmentalist, Ms. Gund’s personal life paints a dark and different story,” the lawsuit states.
The two separate lawsuits, filed on behalf of Walsh and Adams, claim that she used her crew as personal assistants, and refused to pay them overtime. Crew such as flight attendants were required to do other tasks such as household chores, grocery shopping, gardening, and dressing and bathing her, the lawsuit states.
The two employees allege that she formed two companies to manage the private jets for her personal use, and used the crew as a type of “Amazon Prime” service, such as ordering the flight crew to retrieve her gym shoes from one state to another, or sending her dry cleaning to New York City, the suits allege.
The extra duties her flight crew were required to do, ran in excess of 12-hour workdays, yet Gund allegedly refused overtime and legally mandated meals and rest breaks.
“Minor perceived failings on the part of the flight crew are met with rage, including barging into the cockpit during flights to scream at the pilots, which places herself and the crew in danger,” the lawsuit alleges.
She would allegedly yell at pilots if she did not like turbulence during the flight, or if she did not like the altitude at which pilots were flying, the lawsuits allege.
Walsh said she stood up to Gund, who allegedly called her a “b***h” and “elbowed” her out of her home, slammed the door in her face and fired her, the lawsuit alleges.
Walsh claims that during her employment with Gund, which began in 2017, she would be called on during all hours of the night for tasks.
The lawsuits allege whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination, nonpayment of wages and breach of contract. No trial date has been set.
“Hypocrisy is ugly and shocking when you see it in black and white. It’s sad to see someone who has the power to do good in the world treat the people closest to her so terribly,” attorney Bohm said in a statement. “All the money in the world doesn’t mean you are a good person. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for Ms. Gund to follow the law and treat people with respect.”
The Gund family has been referred to as one of the richest families in America by Forbes Magazine.
An attorney for Gund did not respond to a request for comment.