Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, is under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that deals with workers' rights in the United States. According to the NLRB, SpaceX illegally fired some employees who wrote an open letter expressing their concerns about the founder and CEO's behavior. The open letter was written last year by a group of SpaceX employees, who complained that Musk's behavior was “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.” At the time, Musk was trying to acquire Twitter, the popular social network that he later renamed X after taking control of it. SpaceX then fired the employees who helped write the letter.
In the complaint filed Wednesday, the NLRB accuses SpaceX of questioning workers about their participation in the letter and telling employees not to discuss these talks. NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Blado told Reuters that SpaceX violated workers' federal right to act collectively to obtain better conditions. The labor agency alleges that SpaceX has “created a climate of surveillance” by reading and displaying screenshots of messages among employees, adding that the company attempted to prevent workers from distributing the open letter. SpaceX also allegedly “called on employees to resign and threatened termination” if they participated in organized activities. The NLRB is requiring SpaceX to post a notice of employee rights for 120 days and wants the company to write letters of apology to each of the fired employees, among other things. A hearing with an NLRB administrative law judge is scheduled for March 5, 2024, provided that SpaceX does not seek to settle the allegations. Any decision of the judge may be appealed to the board and taken to the federal appeals court.
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