Eight former employees have filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, claiming they were fired after raising concerns about sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. The employees detailed their complaints in a 2022 open letter to management, which led to four of them being terminated the next day, with others fired later following an internal investigation.
In January, the National Labor Relations Board also filed a complaint against SpaceX based on issues raised by nine fired employees. The open letter called for executives to address Musk's behavior on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and to hold all employees accountable for misconduct. Musk had been accused of making light of sexual harassment allegations against him, which he denied.
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages in their lawsuit. The complaint highlighted the connection between Musk's behavior, particularly his controversial tweets, and the work environment at SpaceX. One plaintiff noted that Musk's tweets closely resembled examples of inappropriate behavior discussed in a 2021 employee training session, which were brought to the attention of SpaceX's human resources director but allegedly ignored.
SpaceX has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit and the allegations made by the former employees.
