Originally published at: SpaceX sued for firing staff who criticized Elon Musk - Boing Boing
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Peons (that includes you, artisans/engineers) musn’t criticise the Equity Lord.
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I don’t understand on what basis the NLRB is suing. California is an at-will state, allowing an employer to fire someone without cause. Did criticizing your boss somehow become a protected class?
It is kinda right there:
In the complaint filed on Wednesday, the NLRB accuses SpaceX of interrogating workers about their involvement with the letter and told employees not to discuss these interviews. NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado told Reuters that SpaceX violated the federal right of workers to collectively push for better conditions.
Therefore the basis seems to be a violation of ‘collectively’ or effectively union rights. (needless to say IANAL… but one may be along shortly)
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Firing someone for no reason is not the same thing as firing them for a cause, regardless of whether that clause is a protected class. There are federal labor laws that apply to all employees that allow them to discuss things like wages, and to argue for better working conditions, without being fired for it. You can fire someone for no reason. You cannot fire someone for any reason.
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Based on the article below, a discussion about an executive’s political or other business activities outside the workplace that affect compensation or working conditions at the employee’s company might be interpreted as insufficient grounds for dismissal from a private company.
So talking with SpaceX co-workers about how Musk’s idiocy re: Xitter might affect their employment situations is protected speech in this situation. If that’s cited as the reason for the firing, SpaceX is in trouble.
[Cokes to @theophrastus and @danimagoo ]
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Someone: Criticizes Elon Musk
Musk: How dare you infringe on mah freeze peach by pointing out what I said was shitty! I’m going to punish you!
Someone: But what about our free speech?!
Musk: Your what, now?
Every. Damn. Time.
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Presumably Gwynne Shotwell who heads up SpaceX is just as complicit, if not more so, as Musk for their firing?
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Additional info, links:
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Musk is a big loud mess, but in the long run the most pressing thing about him is that he’s a key U.S. defense contractor who is in bed with foreign adversaries, and the outcome of that will be a small quiet tidy.
Ok, there seems to be a missing noun or gerund, someone want to clue me in as to what exactly the small, quiet, tidy outcome will be? 'Cause I’m not expecting anyone to ever hold a billionaire accountable for, well, anything anymore.
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So SpaceX reinstates them and then fires them for no reason. Job done. (??)
Probably not. They could rehire them, though, and wait, and start giving them bad performance reviews and then fire them. This is what kills me when anyone is fired for some impermissible reason. It’s trivially easy to come up with permissible reasons. It just takes longer. I mean, if you just happen to conveniently fire someone for “no reason” right after they discuss wages, criticize the boss, or reveal that they’re Muslim, it’s not going to be super hard to convince a jury that you weren’t, in fact, fired for “no reason.” But if you’re patient, it’s hard to permissibly fire anyone. But these people are never patient, and they always think rules are for other people.
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I don’t think any competent lawyers would have much trouble ripping that strategy apart.
SpaceX: We are firing you because you are Black.
Employee: That is blatantly illegal and I am suing.
SpaceX: We meant to say we are firing you for no reason at all, along with all the other Black employees.
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Yeah, but as @danimagoo says, give them time and the chance to find some other excuses.
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I don’t think the employees would be under any obligation to accept an offer to take their jobs back anyway. Why would they want to return to a workplace that has already shown itself hostile to them?
If the plaintiffs want to go ahead with the lawsuit then the company cannot avoid responsibility for its past actions just by promising not to do it anymore.
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Yeah, of course the suit will proceed. At this point I thought you, @danimagoo and I were musing about a hypothetical.
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I suppose that the advantage for the former employer is that they could ask and get compensation for the wrongful termination, like having a bigger severance pay and not to get actually rehired.
There’s a problem to use bad performance reviews and the like to fire selectively somebody, and it’s that other employers, seeing what it’s happening they start to looking around feeling that they could be the next ones on the chopping block, that it could be ok if the HR is trying to have less employees, but it isn’t the desired result if the firing was actually for some impermissible reason.
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How dare a bunch of mere mortals question His Muskiness?
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The problem with that is any attempt to fire them after rehiring will look like retaliation. They will have to exquisitely document all issues, and be able to show in a court of law that the standards for termination was applied equally to all employees. Same with trying to make work life miserable for them.
Like you said, it would have gone smoother for Space-X if they’d been patient and quietly terminated them, but Musk has poor impulse control, thin skin, and no idea what he should actually be doing as the head of the company.
Now, they’re better off settling out of court for a tidy sum and hoping this all goes away.
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