A judge Thursday dismissed a former Space Exploration Technologies Corp. employee’s lawsuit alleging that the spacecraft manufacturer wrongfully fired him in 2020 for complaining to management that government coronavirus mask mandates were being ignored by some workers.
Torrance Superior Court Judge Gary Y. Tanaka’s ruling concerning Oscar Aguirre’s complaint was “without prejudice,” meaning the case can be reinstated with the proper explanation. On June 15, at the parties’ request, Tanaka sent the case to binding arbitration.
The minute order prepared by Tanaka’s clerk did not indicate whether the arbitration proceeded. Aguirre did not appear for Thursday’s status conference hearing, nor did an attorney on his behalf.
In his suit, Aguirre also alleged breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He says he was hired in 2012 as a material handler at the Hawthorne-based company, then was later promoted to the positions of production coordinator and non-destructive testing coordinator.
Aguirre worked in multiple SpaceX facilities and was a liaison between floor technicians who tested materials on the plant floor and engineers, the suit filed in August 2022 stated.
The engineers with whom Aguirre interacted were on a partially overlapping work schedule with the plaintiff because SpaceX considered it important that they interact, the suit stated. 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 stated.
“Plaintiff repeatedly told the floor technicians about the necessity of their wearing the face masks, but many still refused to do so,” the suit stated.
Aguirre complained to his supervisors about the floor technicians’ alleged refusal to wear masks, but the problem persisted and after several complaints by Aguirre to management, he was given a written warning by SpaceX human resources in August 2020 for tardiness that occurred months earlier during the previous management when he was asked to come in later, the suit stated.
Aguirre was fired later that same day and also told he had a poor mid-year review in which some floor technicians alleged 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 stated.