Jill Armstrong says she has good reason to accept Mexican housekeeper Nicandra Diaz Santillan's tale of working in the household of GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman - because Armstrong herself was a domestic for the former eBay CEO.

"I totally believe" Diaz, Armstrong, 59, of Mountain View, said in an interview with The Chronicle. "I know the family. I know what it was like."

Diaz, an undocumented immigrant, on Wednesday publicly recounted her story of long hours and unpaid work for Whitman, charging that she was fired in June 2009 after nine years on the job after asking the gubernatorial candidate for help in getting legal immigration status.

Whitman has said she did not know Diaz was an illegal immigrant and was forced to let her go when she learned about it.

Armstrong, who worked for Whitman and her husband, Griff Harsh, during the summer of 1998, produced her W-2 form from that year, which reflects her stint as a full-time nanny for Whitman. Her hiring was confirmed by Palo Alto-based Town and Country Resources, the employment agency that placed Diaz with Whitman two years later.

'Had enough'

Armstrong said she quit after about two months because of the demands and difficulties of the job.

"I had enough," she said in an interview, describing trouble getting paid what she believed she was owed, and challenges in dealing with household chores and in supervising Whitman's two young sons.

Campaign responds

Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Whitman, called Armstrong's complaints "the unsubstantiated claims of a lone employee who worked in the Whitman household for just a few weeks 12 years ago."

He said many other employees "have worked for Meg and Griff over the years and enjoyed a very positive experience."

Armstrong said she was a registered Democrat in San Mateo County until last year and has since moved to Santa Clara County, where she has not yet registered to vote. She added that she is not associated with the campaign of Whitman's opponent in the Nov. 2 election, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Brown's surrogates or union groups. She said is not receiving compensation or any kind of incentive to tell her story.

Armstrong said she came forward because she believed Whitman viewed domestic help as "disposable."

"We're raising their kids, and we deserve respect," she said.

Armstrong - a U.S. citizen who was raised in Palo Alto and is a grandmother of two - said she was an experienced, "full-service" nanny for more than 20 years who had worked for several well-off families in the area.

When she was hired by Whitman and her husband on June 28, 1998, Armstrong said, "The duties were to take care of the kids, take them to their activities, keep the house clean, do the laundry, go to the grocery store" and perform other household jobs.

Armstrong said Whitman and Harsh were in the process of moving from the Boston area into Apt. 215 at the Oak Creek Apartments in Palo Alto, near Stanford University Medical Center, where Harsh works. Armstrong said it was agreed that she would be paid full-time and was brought on to help Whitman get the living space ready before the children came to California.

Balked at paying

"I set up her apartment. I did the unpacking," and other jobs to get the place ready for the children, Armstrong said.

But she described Whitman as "cheap" and said she was surprised when her boss at first balked at paying the agreed salary - arguing that Armstrong didn't "deserve" it because she wasn't yet working full-time as a nanny.

Armstrong said she was also surprised to hear Whitman's explanation last week that her husband did not recall receiving a letter from the Social Security Administration in 2003 that asked the Whitmans to double-check their information on Diaz because the information on file did not match the agency's records.

"Harsh would not forget something like that," Armstrong said. "He had his thumb on everything."

After two months, Armstrong said, "I called her up and said, 'Meg, I quit. I can't handle it anymore.' "

Her biggest problem, she said, came months later when she was ready to file her taxes but hadn't received a tax form from Whitman. She called her former employer to say, "Meg, you did not give me a W-2."

Creative accounting

Armstrong heard nothing and "had to threaten to take her to the IRS" before Whitman's accountant called back and said, "Give me the numbers; give me the hours," she recalled.

"That's Meg's responsibility," Armstrong said she replied. "Isn't she supposed to have all that written down?

"He said, 'Look, will you work with me?' " Armstrong said. "And that's how we came up with the numbers."

Armstrong's W-2 form shows her salary for two months of full-time work was exactly $5,200.