SpaceX Worker With Crohn’s Says He Was Fired for...

Former SpaceX worker Douglas Altshuler is taking purpose on the Musk-owned firm in a brand new federal discrimination lawsuit.

The 58-year-old Washington resident and his attorneys filed the lawsuit final month. The swimsuit alleges that Altshuler’s employers threatened to fireplace him for taking frequent toilet breaks, even after he informed them that he had Crohn’s illness. Altshuler additionally alleges that he was uncovered to chemical compounds, was usually denied meal breaks, and was denied correct extra time pay throughout his 18-month employment there.

In line with the lawsuit, first obtained by The Unbiased final week, Altshuler was employed to deal with buyer assist calls at SpaceX’s Redmond, Washington, facility in June 2023. He appeared to haven’t any points with the job till early 2024, when his direct supervisor “started monitoring Mr. Altshuler’s toilet breaks and repeatedly criticized [him] for utilizing the toilet,” the lawsuit claims. Altshuler reportedly supplied his supervisor with a health care provider’s letter explaining that he has Crohn’s illness, a type of power inflammatory bowel illness that always forces folks to make use of the toilet often, significantly throughout energetic flare-ups.

Altshuler claims that he requested and was given assurance by two supervisors for an inexpensive lodging to make use of the toilet as wanted. However quickly sufficient, his direct supervisor allegedly started to needle him once more over his bathroom habits, monitoring his toilet breaks and writing him up at any time when he was away from his desk for greater than 10 minutes. Altshuler says he then pleaded his case to higher-ups at SpaceX, which reportedly led to retaliation from his supervisor throughout his subsequent efficiency evaluation; the lawsuit claims that the supervisor “alleged efficiency deficiencies which had been by no means dropped at [Altshuler’s] consideration earlier than.”

Although Altshuler was assigned to a brand new supervisor in October 2024, his points reportedly continued. Altshuler alleges that he was probably uncovered to chemical compounds in November from “industrial components being dried in the kitchen oven the place workers cook dinner their meals.” He reported the incident to the Occupational Security and Well being Administration and filed a employee’s compensation declare over it as properly. Afterward, he claims that he was additional retaliated towards, together with his new supervisor reportedly threatening to fireplace him for utilizing the toilet “too usually.” In early January, Altshuler was allegedly informed by Human Assets at SpaceX that his “issues of retaliation had been unsubstantiated.” Quickly after, on January 9, 2025, he was fired, reportedly for “alleged poor efficiency.” 

This isn’t the primary time that former workers at SpaceX have alleged mistreatment and retaliation from the corporate’s administration. In January 2024, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight workers after they started to flow into a letter in 2022 calling for SpaceX to distance itself from Elon Musk’s habits and feedback on the time, which included allegedly sexually harassing workers on the firm. These workers have since filed their own lawsuit in California State Court docket towards Musk. Musk has additionally fired employees at X, previously Twitter, since taking on possession of the social media firm.

In talking with The Unbiased, Altshuler’s attorneys argue that his firing is a clear-cut case of discrimination towards him for his incapacity, in addition to an instance of retaliation towards him for making an attempt to talk up about it. Altshuler has additional claimed that he was usually required to skip his meal breaks and work lengthy hours with out added pay. “The corporate’s actions are egregious and in clear violation of the legislation. Mr. Altshuler intends to hunt all authorized cures which are accessible to him,” Clive Pontusson, a former trial lawyer for the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee, told The Unbiased.

Gizmodo reached out to SpaceX for remark concerning the lawsuit however didn’t hear again by the point of publication.