SpaceX Says a Female Employee’s Discrimination Claims Belong in Arbitration

A SpaceX employee who alleges she suffered discrimination and harassment and that she became pregnant after being coerced into a sexual relationship with a supervisor is bound by her 2017 employment agreement to have an arbitrator rather than a jury address her claims, the company’s lawyers argue in new court papers.

Plaintiff Michelle Dopak also alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that Hawthorne-based SpaceX paid her less than male colleagues and retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment by a manager. She maintains management is “blatantly setting (her) up to fail” in order to force her to quit in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination.

But in court papers filed Friday with Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch, SpaceX attorneys state that the 37-year-old plaintiff, who moved to Florida in 2023, is obligated to arbitrate any job-related disputes under her August 2017 employment agreement in which she was hired as a production coordinator.

Read the source article at Audacy