SpaceX sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a day after being accused of unfair treatment of its employees.
Illegal Firing Lawsuit
On Wednesday, a complaint against SpaceX was filed by the board, alleging the unlawful firing of eight workers who criticized Elon Musk with an open letter denouncing his behavior and advocating for a separation between SpaceX and Musk's brand. Only three out of the eight employees who claimed retaliation from SpaceX publicly joined the complaint. If SpaceX doesn't settle the charges, the company is set to go through a hearing with an NLRB administrative law judge on March 5.
SpaceX Counters an Ongoing Lawsuit
A lawsuit has been filed by SpaceX accusing the company of unlawfully terminating employees who wrote a letter to company executives describing CEO Elon Musk as "a distraction and embarrassment."
The filed complaint has asserted that the NLRB structure is governed by officials with unconstitutional removal protections that go against the U.S. Constitution. Musk's company argues that the agency has inherent structural flaws that make it unfit to oversee its efforts in holding private employers accountable for labor law violations. SpaceX argues that the NLRB lacks the constitutionally required control because the president cannot freely remove board members or agency judges. The claim is that the board plays a dual role as both a prosecutor, charging SpaceX with violations of federal labor law, and an adjudicator, as the same NLRB members issue the agency's final order on whether SpaceX violated federal labor law.
The lawsuit is similar to SpaceX's recent lawsuit against the U.S. attorney general and two other Department of Justice officials, aiming to halt a separate hiring discrimination case on the company's unlawful decline to hire refugees and asylum recipients.
"NLRB ALJs are Officers of the United States under the Constitution's Appointments Clause, not mere employees, because among other things, they hold continuing offices through which they preside over adversarial hearings, receive testimony, shape the administrative record, and prepare proposed findings and opinions," SpaceX argued.
READ ALSO: SpaceX Wrongfully Terminating Eight Workers, Faces Criticism on Labor Laws and Working Conditions
Second Accusation of Musk Brand to Regulators
Musk's company has accused a U.S. regulator of violating the country's constitution in its regulatory actions for the second time in less than a month. Tesla, Musk's electric car brand, claimed that California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) violated its free speech rights by portraying Tesla's Autopilot's autonomy as a complete self-driving platform rather than an advanced driver assist system. Tesla's lawyers argued that the DMV tries to restrict Tesla's truthful communication about its vehicles and features unfairly.
Musk's lawyers use a constitutional argument against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where they are currently contesting a consent decree stipulating that Musk cannot post tweets about the electric carmaker without being legally reviewed.
The decree was issued after Musk's tweets caused a substantial drop in share price in 2020. The judge argued that Musk had forfeited his First Amendment rights by agreeing to the consent decree. Still, Musk's lawyers contest that it shouldn't apply since he was acquitted of securities fraud by a California jury in the case.
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