Electrical transport startup Rivian has been sued by one among its former staff. Per , Laura Schwab, an govt who was a vice chairman of gross sales and advertising on the automaker till final month, filed a gender discrimination grievance with the California Superior Court docket in Orange County on Thursday. Within the lawsuit, Schwab alleges she was fired by Rivian after she complained of a “poisonous ‘bro tradition’” that noticed different executives exclude her from conferences and ignore her recommendation.
“The tradition at Rivian was truly the worst I’ve skilled in over 20 years within the automotive business,” Schwab instructed The Journal. A veteran of the automotive business, Schwab held govt posts at Aston Martin Lagonda and Jaguar Land Rover earlier than she joined Rivian in November 2020.
In line with the outlet, Schwab tried to push the corporate to deal with quite a few issues whereas she was there. In a single occasion, she allegedly tried to inform the opposite executives on Rivian’s management staff that the corporate had underpriced its automobiles. In one more scenario, she tried to boost issues in regards to the high quality of the automaker’s manufacturing course of. Within the former case, the corporate allegedly initially dismissed her recommendation solely to later comply with via on it after a male govt raised the identical challenge.
The swimsuit comes forward of Rivian’s the place the corporate will search to boost as a lot as $9.6 billion in extra funding. It additionally not too long ago R1T vans for purchasers. Extra broadly, the swimsuit comes as a number of different corporations within the tech area face scrutiny over their gender equality practices. Most notably, there’s Activision Blizzard, which was in July for fostering what it described as a sexist “frat boy” office tradition. The fallout from that lawsuit has been far-reaching. Following months of strain from staff, the corporate in instances involving sexual harassment and discrimination and put in place a zero-tolerance stance towards harassment.
Citing the quiet interval forward of its IPO, Rivian declined to touch upon the grievance.
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