The employees were fired for drafting a letter calling Musk a ‘distraction and embarrassment’ to the company (Picture: AFP)
Eight former employees of SpaceX are suing the company, alleging they were let go for speaking up against CEO and founder Elon Musk.
On Thursday, the employees said they were fired for being part of a group that had drafted and circulated a letter in June criticising Musk and urging executives to make the firm’s culture more inclusive.
Earlier this year in June, SpaceX fired at least five employees for drafting and circulating a letter calling Musk a ‘distraction and embarrassment’ to the company.
The charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board allege that SpaceX fired five employees the day after the letter was revealed, and four others in the two months after.
While two of the employees filed charges on their own, attorneys Anne Shaver and Laurie Burgess filed charges on behalf of six others, who are proceeding anonymously, the statement said.
Musk publicly fired a Twitter developer on Twitter after they clashed over the state of the app on Android (Picture: Reuters)
Following that incident, SpaceX’s President, Gwynne Shotwell, sent an email to employees saying the company had investigated and ‘terminated a number of employees involved’ with the letter.
Shotwell’s email allegedly said that the employees were fired for making other staff feel ‘uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views’.
‘We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,’ said Shotwell.
Musk, who is also SpaceX’s chief engineer is seen as the person behind the company’s successes but his staff don’t want to be associated with his public antics.
The world’s richest man has been in the headlines over his acquisition of Twitter and attempts to rejig the social media firm after he warned of a potential bankruptcy.
Even at his new company, Musk does not seem to take criticism well. Just this week he publicly fired a Twitter developer on Twitter after they clashed over the state of the app on Android.
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They allegedly drafted a letter calling Musk a ‘distraction and embarrassment’.
