Former SpaceX employee sues company for $5m for alleged breaches of employment laws

Former technician Stan Saporito said employees were pushed to 'work off the clock'

CEO and founder Elon Musk speaks at a SpaceX press conference (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

A former employee of SpaceX, the space transport company founded by Elon Musk, is suing the company for $5 million (£3.2 million) for allegedly breaching employment laws.

Stan Saporito, a technician who worked for the company from 2013 to February this year, says staff were not given overtime pay or lunch breaks and were forced to state they worked fewer hours than they actually did on their timesheets.

As Sky reports, California law requires employees to get 30 minute breaks if they work for more than five hours, and another half-hour break if they work 10.

The law also requires companies give their workers 10 minute breaks for every four hours worked - Saporito says this didn't happen at SpaceX, and added staff were pushed to "work off the clock".

SpaceX denies these claims, and has said they will challenge them in court. Saporito has requested a jury trial, and now the company has 30 days to respond.

SpaceX and Musk's other company, Tesla, are known for their tough working hours.

In a 2012 interview with Autoblog, Musk spoke proudly about the long hours that his employees are expected to put in.

He said: "If you work for Tesla, the minimum is really a 50-hour week and there are times when it'll be 60-to-80 hour weeks."

"If somebody is hourly, they receive time-and-a-half but if somebody is salary, then we do cash and stock bonuses for going above and beyond the call of duty. So we try to make it fair compensation, but the general understanding is that if you're at Tesla, you're choosing to be at the equivalent of Special Forces."

"There's the regular Army, and that's fine, but if you are working at Tesla, you're choosing to step up your game."