SpaceX employee ties firing to his insistence on mask mandate compliance

A former Space Exploration Technologies Corp. employee is suing the spacecraft manufacturer, alleging he was wrongfully fired in 2020 for complaining to management that government coronavirus mask mandates were being ignored in the workplace by some workers.

Oscar Aguirre’s Torrance Superior Court lawsuit also alleges breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

A representative for Hawthorne-based SpaceX did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Thursday.

Aguirre was hired in 2012 as a material handler was later promoted to expediter and production coordinator and ultimately to non-destructive testing coordinator, the suit states. Aguirre worked in multiple SpaceX facilities and was a liaison between floor technicians who tested materials on the plant floor and engineers, the suit states.

The engineers with whom Aguirre interacted were on a partially overlapping work schedule as the plaintiff because SpaceX considered it important that they interact, the suit states. But when new management took over, new rules were instituted and Aguirre was told to no longer come in at a time when he could interact with the engineers and he was instead told to do so with the floor technicians, according to the suit.

Aguirre soon saw that many of the floor technicians did not obey local, city and state coronavirus safety rules by not wearing face masks, the suit states.

“Plaintiff repeatedly told the floor technicians about the necessity of their wearing the face masks, but many still refused to do so,” the suit states.

Aguirre complained to his supervisors about the floor technicians’ alleged refusal to wear masks, but the problem persisted, the suit states. Instead, in August 2020, after several complaints by Aguirre to management, he was given a written warning by Space-X human resources for tardiness that occurred months earlier during the previous management when he was asked to come in later, the suit states.

Aguirre was fired later that same day and also told he had a poor mid- year review in which some floor technicians alleging the plaintiff was not available on the floor, but during those times he was actually busy doing work in other buildings, according to the suit.

Aguirre was fired because of his whistleblowing activities in telling SpaceX management that floor technicians were refusing to comply with coronavirus mask mandates, the suit states.

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