A former SpaceX safety supervisor, who was aware about prime secret data on U.S. authorities packages, is suing the corporate and one among its senior staff 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 Times reported SpaceX was below federal assessment for sloppy safety protocols. Collins discouraged reporting safety clearance violations and allowed executives with out correct clearances into categorized conferences, in keeping with the NYT. This and different allegations triggered at the very least three federal critiques of the corporate’s safety procedures, the NYT discovered.
In accordance with Shumway’s grievance, 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 completely modified” when Collins was employed as her superior in spring 2024, in keeping with the grievance. 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 staff too, the grievance alleges. The discrimination included stopping feminine workers from doing required safety work, allegedly setting them up for non-compliance, watching 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 staff repeatedly reported Collins to SpaceX Human Sources, the lawsuit states. The corporate ignored these complaints, the swimsuit alleges, and didn’t take any motion past suggesting the workers keep away from being alone with Collins. Shumway is looking for unspecified damages.
This isn’t the primary time SpaceX has been sued over claims that it allows sexual discrimination. Earlier lawsuits have alleged related tales of bias in opposition to feminine staff and a hostile work atmosphere that enabled gender-based harassment. The corporate can also be battling investigations from the California Civil Rights Division and the Nationwide Labor Relations Board over related claims.
The lawsuit was filed in late Could within the Los Angeles County Superior Court docket; it was later moved to federal court docket on June 30 at SpaceX’s request. It’s filed within the federal Central District of California court docket below case quantity 2:22-cv-05959.