Celine Dion Sued For Not Paying Employees Overtime

Canadian Megastar Celine Dion is in hot water down in Florida and it isn’t just because of the heat. An ex-handyman has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Dion and her husband routinely screw their employees out of federally mandated overtime. The employees in question all work on the couple’s massive mansion in Florida.

A copy of the lawsuit was obtained by TMZ. In the document which was filed in federal court on Wednesday by Keith Sturtevant he claims that he was hired in March 2009 as a “warehouse worker” but he also worked regularly at Celine and Rene Angelil’s giant home in Hobe Sound, Florida.

The suit contains claims that Sturtevant fixed Ice Makers, cleaned house shutters, built stages, and ran miscellaneous errands for Celine and Rene. He claims that even though he was hired as a manager he was given no authority to hire or fire employees. Sturtevant claims that for all intents and purposes he was not a manager in any conceivable definition of the word and that Celine and Rene “improperly and illegally designated [Sturtevant] as an exempt employee” The designation meant they didn’t have to pay him overtime even though he routinely worked more than 40 hours a week.

The lawsuit claims that the couple designated other employees as “exempt” to avoid paying them their much deserved overtime also. His lawyers plan on deposing many former and current employees in order to establish a pattern of bad behavior by the couple.

Calls to Celine Dion’s representatives have not been returned.