Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment by eight former SpaceX engineers, according to a court filing on Wednesday cited by multiple media sources.
The lawsuit, which names Musk directly as a defendant, claims the plaintiffs were fired at Musk’s direction in retaliation for raising concerns about his behavior in an open letter. The lawsuit claims Musk fostered a “wildly uncomfortable hostile work environment…upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community.” The complaint escalates a complaint previously filed with the National Labor Relations Board. A decision in favor of the employees by the NLRB was subsequently contested by SpaceX claiming the agency’s structure was “unconstitutional” and administrative judges and members are improperly insulated from removal.
The news of a lawsuit against Musk comes in the wake of a Wall Street Journal article on Wednesday claiming Musk “pursued women working at [SpaceX] for sex, including a former intern.” The Journal article elaborates on several incidences of sexual impropriety by the billionaire CEO, some starting out as consensual and ending badly, while others claim that Musk failed to follow his company’s own rules pertaining to harassment in the workplace.
SpaceX’s president, COO, and longtime employee of Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, claims the Journal’s reporting contains “untruths, mischaracterizations, and revisionist history [that] paint a completely misleading narrative,” adding that she is “amazed by what this extraordinary group of people are achieving every day even amidst all the forces acting against us. And Elon is one of the best humans I know.”
