In the continuing drama relating to Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk's performative management style being a distraction to employees at his government-subsidized SpaceX legal experts have weighed in, and the retaliatory firing of employees for writing a letter about working conditions in the company is not easy to defend.
The most difficult part of retaliation cases is often proving that an employee really was fired in retaliation for speaking up, but SpaceX has made it easy to show the connection. In her note to employees after the firings, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell made clear that the employees had been terminated specifically because of their involvement with the letter, which she characterized as "overreaching activism." Even if SpaceX tried to deny it, the simple timing of the firings — coming less than 24 hours after the letter itself — makes the connection hard to ignore.
"This could very much be seen as retaliation for speaking up," says Mary Inman, a whistleblower attorney at Constantine Cannon. "What does this say to workers? It basically says, we don't want to hear from you."
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
