Employees Launch Lawsuits Against Spacex

SpaceX has made plenty of headlines for creating its high-tech replacement for the retired NASA space shuttles and lots of other space innovations. It has already flown supply missions to the International Space Station several times and may carry astronauts as early as next year.

Lately, however, SpaceX has found itself in the headlines for different reasons.  In July, SpaceX laid off hundreds of workers – may be as many as 400.  Worse than just layoffs, SpaceX didn’t tell the employees it was coming.  Under California law, a company doing a layoff of that size must tell employees at least 60 days beforehand.  Otherwise, employees are left in the lurch with no job and no support without warning – which is exactly what two former SpaceX employees alleged happened in a lawsuit they filed in Los Angeles.  They have filed a class-action suit on behalf of all the employees who did not receive the layoff warning that the state requires.

In a double-whammy, a second class-action suit was also recently filed against SpaceX.  This suit claims that employees weren’t given breaks and were forced to work off the clock so they weren’t paid for all their time.  For such a high-tech company, it is surprising that it would make such low-tech labor mistakes.