A former SpaceX safety supervisor, who was aware about prime secret data on U.S. authorities applications, is suing the corporate and one in every of its senior workers for alleged discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation.
Jenna Shumway, who was promoted to Senior Contractor Program Safety Officer after being employed in 2022, additionally alleges the senior worker — Daniel Collins, a former Protection Division official employed to run safety compliance for the corporate’s authorities work — violated prime secret protocols after which hid this data from the federal government.
Legal professionals for Shumway, Collins, and SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
Collins made the information in December 2024 when The New York Instances reported SpaceX was below federal overview for sloppy safety protocols. Collins discouraged reporting safety clearance violations and allowed executives with out correct clearances into labeled conferences, in keeping with the NYT. This and different allegations triggered at the least three federal critiques of the corporate’s safety procedures, the NYT discovered.
In response to Shumway’s criticism, she was handed over for the director place that Collins finally was employed to with out being given the chance to use for it. Her “work atmosphere totally modified” when Collins was employed as her superior in spring 2024, in keeping with the criticism. Shumway claims Collins successfully waged a marketing campaign of harassment in opposition to her, which included stripping her of her duties over a interval of months and finally resulting in her termination in October 2024.
Collins’ harassment prolonged to different feminine workers too, the criticism alleges. The discrimination included stopping feminine employees from doing required safety work, allegedly setting them up for non-compliance, gazing one worker’s chest throughout a gathering, and asking a subordinate feminine worker if she wished to “get shitty collectively” over after-work drinks.
Shumway and different feminine workers repeatedly reported Collins to SpaceX Human Assets, the lawsuit states. The corporate ignored these complaints, the go well with alleges, and didn’t take any motion past suggesting the workers keep away from being alone with Collins. Shumway is in search of unspecified damages.
This isn’t the primary time SpaceX has been sued over claims that it permits sexual discrimination. Earlier lawsuits have alleged comparable tales of bias in opposition to feminine workers and a hostile work atmosphere that enabled gender-based harassment. The corporate can be battling investigations from the California Civil Rights Division and the Nationwide Labor Relations Board over comparable claims.
The lawsuit was filed in late Could within the Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom; it was later moved to federal courtroom on June 30 at SpaceX’s request. It’s filed within the federal Central District of California courtroom below case quantity 2:22-cv-05959.
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