Former employees sue Musk and SpaceX for harassment and retaliation

Eight former SpaceX employees are suing the rocket company and its CEO Elon Musk, claiming Musk personally ordered their firing after they accused SpaceX of tolerating sexual harassment in the workplace.

All eight employees were fired in 2022 after circulating an “open letter” within SpaceX claiming Musk’s “public conduct was a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment,” according to a copy of the lawsuit provided by their lawyers.

The lawsuit accuses Musk of “running his company in the Dark Ages – treating women like sex objects judged by their bra size, bombarding the workplace with offensive sexual comments, and offering anyone who objects to the Animal House environment the option of finding other employment if they don’t like it.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, defended the company in an article to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, detailing many of the allegations made by former employees.

Shotwell told the Journal that her reporting painted “a completely misleading picture” of the company and that “Elon is one of the best people I know.” She told the newspaper that SpaceX fully investigates all complaints of harassment and takes appropriate action.

The lawsuit accuses him of several violations of federal and state labor laws. Among other things, Musk is said to have “personally engaged in sexual harassment and created a hostile work environment.” He also claims that he retaliated against employees because they “stood up against the discrimination, harassment and hostile work environment they observed.”

Some of the plaintiffs say they were directly victims of sexual harassment, the lawsuit says. Engineer Paige Holland-Thielen, for example, says a senior employee responded to a graph of recorded data with a “sexual reference to an erect penis” and asked her, “How do we get it up, up, up?”, the lawsuit says. She reported the matter to SpaceX’s human resources department and was unaware of the consequences, the lawsuit says.

Another plaintiff, engineer Rebekah Clark, said in the lawsuit that she heard comments about breasts at work after Musk made a sexually charged comment about X. She raised her concerns at a meeting with SpaceX executives in 2022 and was told, “SpaceX is Elon and Elon is SpaceX,” the lawsuit said.

And a third, engineer Claire Mallon, says she reported a male colleague to human resources because he repeatedly discussed sexually explicit topics with her, including inviting her to a sex party. Human resources “took no discernible action” and the man was promoted, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that Musk’s posts on Twitter (now X) encouraged sexually inappropriate language and workplace behavior among rank-and-file employees. It cites at least 20 of his posts, including several with penis references.

NBC News has not independently verified the accuracy of the former employees’ statements.

The eight layoffs were the subject of a complaint filed against SpaceX in January by a regional official of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), who accused the company of violating federal labor law. SpaceX responded to that complaint with a lawsuit seeking to have the NLRB’s structure declared unconstitutional. The NLRB’s complaint and related lawsuit are still pending.

Wednesday’s lawsuit differs from the NLRB’s complaint because it seeks to hold Musk personally liable for the work environment at SpaceX and the terminations.

“Musk believes he is above the law. Our eight brave clients stood up to him and were fired for it,” Laurie Burgess, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “We look forward to holding Musk accountable for his actions in court.”

The lawsuit was filed in California state court in Los Angeles, according to a copy provided by the attorneys.

This came a week after SpaceX captured the global spotlight for successfully launching its 400-foot-tall Starship mega-rocket on an unmanned test flight to orbit and back.