Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
Elon Musk is a billionaire investor who is generally known as being somewhat eccentric. His primary investments are Tesla, which manufactures high-end electric cars, and Space X, the private space company developing rockets to carry people and cargo into a low-earth orbit and to rendezvous with the International Space Station.
According to recent news article from the Daily Caller, Musk just settled a lawsuit with thousands of Space X employees who filed a class action suit in which they alleged they were underpaid and overworked. The settlement was in the amount of $4 million. Each employee will receive at least $500, with some receiving many times that amount, depending upon his or her specific claims and damages.
The court had determined Space X violated various California labor code statutes. The primary claims were that that they were not provided with required meal breaks and rest periods. This is similar to a large-scale lawsuit that was settled against a major big box retailer. This company has production centers in various locations, but the headquarters is located in Los Angeles.
In the complaint originally filed by plaintiffs in this lawsuit, they claimed that they were forced to work even they were not on the clock, and this was for no compensation. They claimed there was a specific company policy in place that had them clock out and then go right back to work if their projects were not completed, and they further claim it was not possible to complete their required projects in a standard work day. Instead of letting them leave or paying overtime, as they would be required to do, they were simply not paid, according to allegations.
As part of this suit, Musk allegedly claimed that he regularly works 100 hours a week and is equally demanding of those who work for him. As our Los Angeles employment attorneys can explain, while it is good if a boss is hard worker and sets a good example, hourly employees cannot be forced to work for free, and that includes working for more hours than are paid in any given pay period. There is clearly no question that the owner of a company is compensated far beyond his or her employees when the company is successful.
If you feel that you were not paid for all of the hours you were required to work, you should contact an experienced wage and hour dispute lawyer as soon as possible to see if you have a valid claim. It is helpful to provide your attorney with all pay records and employee schedules you have available, as this will aid in valuing your claim in a much quicker manner.
It should be noted that Musk has an estimated net worth of more than $15 billion, so this will not have a major impact, but the settlement will help out those who depend on their paycheck to make ends meet.
This was not the only lawsuit filed against Musk by his employees or former employees. There was another lawsuit recently filed that claims employees were not given proper notice before a large-scale layoff.
Contact the employment attorneys at Nassiri Law Group, practicing in Orange County, Riverside and Los Angeles. Call 949.375.4734.
Additional Resources:
Thousands Of Workers Successfully Sue Elon Musk For $4 Million, May 13, 2017, By Andrew Follett, The Daily Caller
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Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Engineer, March 25, 2017, Orange County Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blog