Elon Musk Sued by 8 Former SpaceX Employees Alleging Sexual Harassment and Retaliation
The former SpaceX engineers allege that Musk personally ordered their firings after they raised concerns.
Elon Musk is being sued by eight former SpaceX engineers, who say Musk personally ordered their firings after they penned an open letter raising concerns about sexual harassment at the company.
The eight employees — four men and four women — were all fired in June 2022 after publishing a letter that claimed the CEO’s “behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us,” published less than a month after Musk was reported to have settled a misconduct allegation raised by a former SpaceX flight attendant.
The letter also asked SpaceX executives to condemn Musk’s behavior and argued that the company should “swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon’s personal brand.”
In the suit, the plaintiffs accuse Musk of “treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size, bombarding the workplace with lewd sexual banter, and offering the reprise to those who challenge the ‘Animal House’ environment that if they don’t like it they can seek employment elsewhere.”
Filed in state court in California, the suit also recalls several scenarios including sexually explicit comments made at work and one in which a male colleague invited a female employee to a sex party. The employee says that while she reported the instance to HR, no action was taken and her colleague was soon after promoted.
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal published a report alleging that Musk has had sexual relationships with at least two SpaceX employees, one of whom was a former intern that he eventually hired as part of his executive team.
A third woman who resigned from SpaceX said that Musk asked her to have his babies on several occasions. After she refused, she claims she was denied a raise and given a poor performance review.
The eight employees are also a part of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case, in which they claim their firings violate US labor laws. SpaceX is suing NLRB in response, arguing that their proceedings violate the US Constitution.
