SpaceX faces two separate lawsuits filed by workers who claim that it violated California state law when it did not warn them before it completed a mass firing. The two workers who sued the rocket maker over the mass firing said they had been structural technicians at its facility in Hawthorne, Calif. They said they were part of a 400-worker mass firing that occurred without prior notice. A separate case was filed by another worker who alleged he was forced to work off the clock.
Details on the layoff case against SpaceX
Under California state law, companies are required to give workers a 60-day notice that they will lose their job. The law applies to companies that have at least 75 employees and that order at least 50 employees to be laid off.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the lawsuit alleges SpaceX owes the workers it laid off up to 60 days of back pay and $500 in civil fines for every day the company violated the rule about warning of a layoff, plus other penalties. The case was filed on Aug. 4 in California Superior Court in Los Angeles on behalf of all 400 workers who were laid off.
SpaceX also sued for not paying workers
In a separate lawsuit, SpaceX is accused of requiring workers to work off the clock and did not give them the required rest and meal breaks. The worker who filed this case claims that SpaceX has been doing this for about the last four years. The suit was filed Aug. 8 in the same court as the other case. A SpaceX spokesperson did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for a comment about the lawsuits.
Of course SpaceX isn’t the only company in recent years to face lawsuits from workers who say they were forced to work off the clock without pay. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE:RL) have also faced similar cases.
