A California civil rights complaint alleges that SpaceX executives made sexual and vulgar comments in the workplace, discriminated against female employees, and fired employees who raised alarm over the behavior. .
The allegations were made by seven former California-based employees who were fired from SpaceX in 2022, saying they “distracted and embarrassed” the space company’s CEO. ) This was right after the distribution of an open letter cutting off Elon Musk’s public conduct.
The California Department of Civil Rights notified SpaceX of the complaint last month. According to Bloomberg, obtained a copy of the complaint. SpaceX would likely have to respond to the application within 30 days.
One employee, Paige Holland Thielen, described an incident in which she approached an unnamed manager to discuss another co-worker’s “inappropriate behavior.”
Before she could explain what had happened, her manager saw a downward data open on her computer screen, made sexual comments, and said, “How can we turn the situation upward, upward, upward?” ”, Holland-Thielen is said to have asked.
The employees claim SpaceX’s failure to address their concerns violates California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination and retaliation based on gender.
Engineer Holland Thielen said he was hired in 2018 and was designated as a lower-level employee than male colleagues with similar career experience.
She claimed that SpaceX blocked her career advancement because of her gender.
A former employee complained to her manager that a male colleague was taking credit for her work, but in a subsequent performance review, she was told that she was “too emotional” and “should be more humble,” the documents state. ing.
SpaceX representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The California Department of Civil Rights could not immediately be reached.
SpaceX’s upper management also allegedly took a flippant attitude after a 2022 Business Insider report surfaced allegations of sexual misconduct against Musk.
The paper reported that SpaceX paid a settlement to a flight attendant for exposing Musk.
Mr. Musk has denied any wrongdoing.
In her complaint, Holland Thielen said her human resources manager said the following: [sic]I must not be hot enough,” says Bloomberg.
The same human resources director reportedly said the allegations against Musk were reminiscent of “Fifty Gray,” an apparent reference to the popular romance novel.
Another former employee, Tom Moline, claimed that SpaceX employees frequently cited crude content that Musk posted on X, the app formerly known as Twitter.
“Basically, anything that made the freshmen’s fluffy beginners laugh was fair game for most of the company,” Moline told the magazine.
Morin said in his complaint that SpaceX executives “determined that I was responsible for initiating, writing, and distributing an open letter criticizing Musk’s actions and was informed that my employment would be terminated.” he claimed.
The same workers who filed the civil rights lawsuit are also involved in a National Labor Relations Board lawsuit accusing SpaceX of violating federal law by firing the appropriate employees who circulated the open letter.
SpaceX denies wrongdoing and last month sued the NLRB, alleging its structure is unconstitutional.
with post wire
