On Wednesday, former employees sued SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk, claiming they were illegally fired for raising concerns about gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the company.
The lawsuit, filed by eight employees who were terminated in 2022, alleges that Musk aims to lead a new era of space travel but manages his company in a manner reminiscent of the past, treating women as sexual objects and fostering a workplace filled with lewd sexual banter. The complaint, filed in a California state court, also states that employees who challenge this environment are told to find employment elsewhere.
These eight former employees were part of a group that authored a 2022 open letter criticizing Musk and urging SpaceX executives to make the company culture more inclusive. The letter, which gathered signatures from at least 400 other employees, requested that SpaceX management clarify that Musk’s public statements, particularly on Twitter, did not reflect the company’s values and noted that SpaceX’s “No A**hole” policy was inconsistently enforced.
Following the release of this letter, the eight employees were fired. The complaint alleges that “Musk personally ordered the Plaintiff’s terminations.”
SpaceX has not responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit. In response to the 2022 letter, SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell stated she would enforce the company’s “zero tolerance” policy against harassment. However, The New York Times reported that she said the employees were terminated for making other staff feel “uncomfortable.”
SpaceX has faced similar complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over these terminations, claiming they amounted to firing employees for engaging in “concerted protected activities.”
Tom Moline, one of the former employees and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, previously told CNN that SpaceX management ignored ongoing mistreatment, harassment, and abuse reported by colleagues, much of which was encouraged by Musk’s actions and words.
Earlier this year, SpaceX responded to a consolidated NLRB complaint with its own lawsuit, alleging that the NLRB’s structure is “unconstitutional.”
The complaint details statements by Musk and actions by other workers that contributed to a hostile and “pervasively sexist culture” at SpaceX. It highlights several crude posts by Musk on Twitter, such as his plan to create a university named “TITS” where “Ds [women’s bra size] would get degrees,” accompanied by an altered image of a rocket resembling a penis.
These posts were widely shared internally, discussed in meetings, and used as humor in professional settings, according to Paige Holland-Thielen, one of the plaintiffs. She stated that employees were encouraged to follow Musk on social media, making it difficult to separate his personal behavior from the professional environment.
The complaint also references Musk’s response to allegations of sexually harassing a flight attendant, where he tweeted: “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect,” along with a laughing emoji. Musk has denied these harassment claims.
“Musk’s conduct of interjecting juvenile, grotesque sexual banter into the workplace had the wholly foreseeable and intentional result of encouraging other employees to engage in similar conduct,” the complaint states.
Former employees allege that engineers often used crude and demeaning names for products, sometimes at the expense of women and LGBTQ+ individuals, such as calling a camera on the Falcon rocket the “Upskirt Camera.”
In one instance, a SpaceX HR director responded to allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior by saying: “I’ve never been sexually harassed; I must not be hot enough,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit claims SpaceX has not addressed harassment, a hostile work environment, or retaliation adequately. The former employees seek unspecified monetary damages for “lost wages, earnings, and other employee benefits, emotional distress.”
