A West Village nanny says she worked 70-hour weeks caring for a wealthy couple’s kids with no overtime and then got kicked to the curb for complaining about her pay.
Now she’s suing her former employers, saying they not only blacklisted her with several placement agencies — they also accused her of being a prostitute.
Angry au pair Elizabeth Ashley Little, 38, says her job went south about two years after being hired in 2014 by Plaza Management director Jacco Reijtenbagh and his wife, Marlies Verhoeven, who founded the high-end concierge service The Cultivist.
She said she was supposed to care for and clean up after their two children in the couple’s posh $14 million Charles Street townhouse at a minimum annual salary of $70,000. She was also told she could get higher pay if she agreed to accept the additional money in cash.
But after two years of long work weeks that stretched into ’round-the-clock shifts without proper overtime pay, the exhausted live-in nanny complained about her schedule, according to court papers.
“At certain times, Ms. Little worked seven days per week without at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in a given week,” her lawsuit says.
Little says that when she spoke up, Reijtenbagh and his wife responded by locking her out of their home — with her belongings, including her wallet, inside, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
When Little threatened to sue after her August 2016 ouster, Verhoeven retaliated by falsely telling her new agency, British American Household Staffing, that the couple was embroiled in a legal battle with the nanny over “the care and safety of her children,” the suit says.
Then Reijtenbagh “told Ms. Little that an acquaintance of his allegedly found pictures of [her] on a website for escorts,’’ her suit says.
“Ms. Little, who had never created a profile or posted any of her pictures on any such website, expressed her alarm . . . that her pictures or likeness were found on such a website, especially in light of her chosen career path focused on caring for children.”
Little says she believes that someone swiped photographs from her Instagram profile to create the escort account.
Little says Reijtenbagh told her if she didn’t sign a document releasing his family from all legal claims, the “first thing” he’d tell prospective employers was that “Ms. Little is suing us.”
“Do you think that is a recommendation to anybody?” Reijtenbagh allegedly asked Little.
Little is suing for unspecified damages including the potential tax consequences for the $17,500 she took off the books, and is seeking compensation for emotional distress.
The couple said in a statement, “We are disappointed to see this complaint, a fabrication filed by a disgruntled former employee who was terminated more than two years ago, and we will defend against it.”


