Fired SpaceX employees sue company for wrongfully firing CEO Elon Musk’s critics

NEW YORK (AP) — Eight former employees have sued SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, alleging that Musk ordered their firing after challenging what they called widespread sexual harassment and a hostile “Animal House”-style work environment at within the company.

The employees, who filed suit in California state court, detailed their complaints in a 2022 open letter to management that they shared via the company intranet. The next day, four of the plaintiffs were fired, they claimed; others were later fired after an internal investigation.

In January, the federal National Labor Relations Board filed its own complaint against SpaceX based on issues raised by nine fired employees.

Among other workplace concerns, the open letter called on executives to condemn Musk’s public behavior on X – the platform then known as Twitter – and to hold all employees accountable for any unacceptable conduct. Musk’s actions included making light of allegations of sexual harassment made against him – accusations the billionaire has denied.

“As its CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is considered the face of SpaceX – every tweet Elon sends is a de facto public statement from the company,” the open letter said at the time. The letter also referred to Musk’s actions as a “frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.”

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages.

The complaint drew connections between Musk’s behavior – particularly his often lewd posts on Twitter – and SpaceX’s work environment. It says one of the plaintiffs, Yaman Abdulhak, noted that many of the inappropriate examples cited in a 2021 employee training on “appropriate behavior” “were very similar to the content of Musk’s tweets.” Abdulhak sent examples of these tweets to SpaceX’s human resources director, who took no action, the complaint states.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

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