A California civil rights authority has received an expanded legal case against Elon Musk's SpaceX by former staff and employees, who are suing the company for discrimination and sexual harassment, saying it allowed a hostile work environment where sexual harassment jokes were common, women were paid less than men, with workers who complained being fired.

First reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, the facts were confirmed by the plaintiffs' lawyers. The complaints, which AFP has seen, illustrate a sexist corporate culture, and Musk's inappropriate online humor was found to set the tone in the workplace.

In January, the aerospace firm was notified of the seven complaints.

In her complaint, former employee Paige Holland-Thielen said, "The harassment was visual in nature in that CEO Elon Musk made public statements that were lewd and demeaning towards women, transgender individuals and gay people on his personal twitter (now X) account".

Holland-Thielen also brought up a performance review that saw her as "too emotional" and requested her to "be more humble", which came as a response to her concern to a superior that a male coworker was taking credit for her work.

'Overreaching activism'

A separate action preceded this when the US National Labor Relations Board stated that employees were illegally fired after complaining in a public letter about company treatment, SpaceX tried to impede and delay a hearing on the issue, due for March 5.

Read next: Musk threatens to fire Tesla execs if they don't return to office

Back in June 2022, employees who wrote and distributed a letter criticizing Musk's behavior were fired, with the company's President dismissing the letter as "overreaching activism".

The open letter, first reported by The Verge, described Musk’s behavior as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.” It cites SpaceX’s “No A**hole” policy and asks the company to “publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior.”

The letter writers said, “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

Similarly, carmaking company Tesla has been under scrutiny for similar accusations of racism and sexual harassment at its California site.

A news investigation by the EEOC has come to light, while #Tesla is already in a legal dispute with the #California Department of Fair Employment and Housing over alleged racial discrimination and harassment. pic.twitter.com/cPwi6dTKGj

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) April 19, 2022