Fired Rivian exec files lawsuit, alleging ‘toxic bro culture’ at Irvine truck startup

2 years ago 267

By Ed Ludlow and Malathi Nayak | Bloomberg

A erstwhile Rivian Automotive enforcement sued the electrical motortruck shaper up of its archetypal nationalist offering, claiming she was fired past period aft complaining astir the Irvine-based company’s “toxic bro culture” and sex discrimination.

Laura Schwab, who was vice president of income and marketing, claimed she was “abruptly” fired aft she complained astir “a textbook signifier of sex bias” and favoritism from a apical executive, according to a transcript of the suit shared by her attorneys. They said the suit was filed successful a California Superior Court successful Orange County.

Schwab alleges Rivian violated the state’s labour code, tarnished her estimation and caused affectional pain, according to the lawsuit.

“Rivian’s unlawful behaviour besides outgo Ms. Schwab millions of dollars successful unvested equity on the eve of the company’s IPO,” it said. Schwab’s attorneys said they besides filed a connection of claims with the American Arbitration Association connected Thursday.

Schwab joined the institution successful November 2020. She said she offered a $360,000 basal salary, a 40% bonus, a $4,000 per period stipend, a $100,000 sign-on bonus, and $1.5 cardinal successful equity successful the signifier of restricted banal units. Rivian, which is backed by Amazon, plans an archetypal nationalist offering successful the days up that could worth the institution astatine adjacent to $60 billion.

A typical for Rivian declined to comment, citing a quiescent play earlier the archetypal nationalist offering.

Dow Jones reported connected the ailment earlier.

“Rivian publically boasts astir its culture, truthful it was a crushing stroke erstwhile I joined the institution and astir instantly experienced a toxic bro civilization that marginalizes women and contributes to the institution making mistakes,” Schwab wrote successful a blog station connected Nov. 4.

In her lawsuit, Schwab alleges Rivian’s Chief Commercial Officer Jiten Behl “routinely excluded her from meetings” and made decisions astir her squad “without her input but with input from men connected antithetic teams, and dismissed the morganatic concerns she had regarding Rivian’s misleading nationalist statements and flawed concern practices.”

Schwab said she’d warned that conveyance income would pb to losses due to the fact that they were “underpriced,” manufacturing needed to beryllium “refined” earlier promising a harmless conveyance to consumers and that a institution connection successful a regulatory filing that 1,000 vehicles would beryllium delivered successful 2021 wasn’t achievable, according to her complaint.

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