Several former SpaceX employees have filed a complaint alleging that the firm broke labor rules after they were let go after publishing an open letter criticizing CEO Elon Musk's conduct.
The letter that employees circulated in June, among other things, called on executives to condemn Elon Musk's public behavior on Twitter.
SpaceX Employees Accused Elon Musk of Unfair Labor Practices
The complaint that was submitted to the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday also detailed making fun of claims that he sexually harassed a flight attendant. The former SpaceX employees urge to hold everyone accountable for unacceptable behavior.
The letter was sent a few weeks after news broke that Elon Musk had given the flight attendant $250,000 to drop a prospective sexual harassment claim against him. The multibillionaire has refuted the charges, according to AP News.
Employees encouraged SpaceX to commit to a transparent mechanism for handling reports of misconduct and to consistently enforce its policy against inappropriate behavior in their letter.
Paige Holland-Thielen filed a complaint with a regional NLRB office in California a day after she and four other employees who assisted in organizing the letter were fired. Weeks later, four more workers were let go for their role in the letter.
These are the kinds of employees you want, and SpaceX "missed an incredible opportunity to improve the company culture and instead just fired them, and that's just tragic. I mean, these are the types of workers you want," Anne Shaver, a partner with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein who is representing the employees behind the complaint, told CBS News.
Elon Musk Questioned Over Handling SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter
Following his decision to acquire ownership of the social media firm Twitter, questions have been raised about Elon Musk's management of SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter, which he now owns. Employees at Twitter also claimed they were fired for criticizing Elon Musk's business tactics both publicly and privately.
Elon Musk allegedly exposed himself to a SpaceX flight attendant in May, and the business allegedly paid the woman a $250,000 settlement in return for her silence. Musk jokingly proposed calling the incident "Elongate" and said, "Fine, if you touch my wiener, you can have a horse."
He then challenged the accuser to "explain anything at all" about his body "that isn't known to the world." The workers urged SpaceX to explain its worker conduct norms and to implement those rules consistently throughout the firm in their open letter to Musk in June. They further requested that SpaceX "condemn" Musk's "harmful Twitter conduct."
According to the workers' legal firm, the letter urged SpaceX to take the proper corrective action, which included denouncing Musk's detrimental Twitter conduct, holding management accountable, and requesting a unified definition and implementation of SpaceX's "No A--hole" policy.
The letter, which was circulated internally at SpaceX, urged other staff members to support the suggestions. The labor charges come as Elon Musk is apparently firing Twitter critics. Last month, Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter before terminating half of the company's 7,500 employees.
In addition, according to the New York Times, Elon Musk dismissed many of workers who had either publicly or privately challenged him after having subordinates go through internal correspondence and public tweets.
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