Texas [US], Eight former employees of Elon Musk's SpaceX sued the company and Musk on Wednesday, alleging they were "unfairly treated" for raising concerns about "sexual harassment" and "discrimination" in the workplace. ", The New York Times reports.
The employees were fired in 2022 after SpaceX executives circulated an open letter urging them to condemn Musk's comments on Twitter, later renamed X, which they described as "causing distraction and embarrassment." Considered as "continuous source".
According to the complaint, upon learning of the letter, Musk ordered his dismissal.
"Eight of our brave clients stood up to them and were fired for doing so," Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing former SpaceX employees, said in a statement. “We look forward to holding Musk accountable for his actions at trial.,
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages. SpaceX has not yet responded to the allegations.
The lawsuit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, calls SpaceX's workplace an "animal house" filled with inappropriate and sexually suggestive behavior, the NYT reports.
Several plaintiffs said they experienced harassment from other SpaceX employees who "mimicked Musk's posts", which created an "extremely uncomfortable hostile work environment".
The lawsuit further states that SpaceX executives were regularly made aware of complaints about Musk's explicit social media messages, but a "sexual harassment internal audit" conducted by Gwynne, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, Even after this the complaints were routinely 'rejected'.Shotwell.
The New York Times cited an email that Shotwell wrote to SpaceX employees after those employees' dismissals, saying there was "very important work to accomplish and there is no need for such extreme activism." "
The same eight employees are already filing charges against SpaceX with the National Labor Relations Board. In January, SpaceX sued the labor board to dispute the allegations, arguing that the complaint should be dismissed because the agency's structure is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed a day before Tesla shareholders are expected to finish a vote on a roughly US$45 billion pay package for Musk. This followed a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday detailing Musk's history of sexual relationships with co-workers.The lawsuit is the latest in a list of grievances between employees and Musk.
In 2022, Business Insider reported that SpaceX had paid US$250,000 to settle a claim that SpaceX exposed himself to an employee on a private plane. (Mr Musk later denied the "baseless allegations".)
Musk also fired nearly half of Twitter's workforce after acquiring the company, later firing two dozen other internal critics of the company. And last August, as The New York Times reported, the Justice Department sued SpaceX for 'discriminating' against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring."We hope this lawsuit will encourage our colleagues to stay strong and keep fighting for a better workplace," Paige Holland-Thelen, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
The employees were fired in 2022 after SpaceX executives circulated an open letter urging them to condemn Musk's comments on Twitter, later renamed X, which they described as "causing distraction and embarrassment." Considered as "continuous source".
According to the complaint, upon learning of the letter, Musk ordered his dismissal.
"Eight of our brave clients stood up to them and were fired for doing so," Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing former SpaceX employees, said in a statement. “We look forward to holding Musk accountable for his actions at trial.,
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages. SpaceX has not yet responded to the allegations.
The lawsuit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, calls SpaceX's workplace an "animal house" filled with inappropriate and sexually suggestive behavior, the NYT reports.
Several plaintiffs said they experienced harassment from other SpaceX employees who "mimicked Musk's posts", which created an "extremely uncomfortable hostile work environment".
The lawsuit further states that SpaceX executives were regularly made aware of complaints about Musk's explicit social media messages, but a "sexual harassment internal audit" conducted by Gwynne, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, Even after this the complaints were routinely 'rejected'.Shotwell.
The New York Times cited an email that Shotwell wrote to SpaceX employees after those employees' dismissals, saying there was "very important work to accomplish and there is no need for such extreme activism." "
The same eight employees are already filing charges against SpaceX with the National Labor Relations Board. In January, SpaceX sued the labor board to dispute the allegations, arguing that the complaint should be dismissed because the agency's structure is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed a day before Tesla shareholders are expected to finish a vote on a roughly US$45 billion pay package for Musk. This followed a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday detailing Musk's history of sexual relationships with co-workers.The lawsuit is the latest in a list of grievances between employees and Musk.
In 2022, Business Insider reported that SpaceX had paid US$250,000 to settle a claim that SpaceX exposed himself to an employee on a private plane. (Mr Musk later denied the "baseless allegations".)
Musk also fired nearly half of Twitter's workforce after acquiring the company, later firing two dozen other internal critics of the company. And last August, as The New York Times reported, the Justice Department sued SpaceX for 'discriminating' against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring."We hope this lawsuit will encourage our colleagues to stay strong and keep fighting for a better workplace," Paige Holland-Thelen, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
