In June, a lawsuit was filed in the United States against the corporation Mozilla and three of its executives regarding alleged discrimination against a person with disabilities and retaliation directed at its Chief Product Officer (CPO) Steve Teixeira. According to a complaint filed in the King County Superior Court in Washington state, Teixeira was promoted to the position of CEO of Mozilla when he was diagnosed with ocular melanoma on October 3, 2023. Teixeira took medical leave for cancer treatment from October 30, 2023, to February 1, 2024.
"Immediately upon his return, Mozilla began a campaign to demote or terminate Mr. Teixeira, citing unfounded concerns and assumptions about his abilities as a person battling cancer. Interim CEO Laura Chambers and Chief People Officer Dani Chehak expressly told Mr. Teixeira that he could not continue working as the CPO, and could not continue working at Mozilla beyond 2024, due to his diagnosis," the complaint states.
The complaint is directed against Chambers and Chehak, as well as Mitchell Baker, former CEO of Mozilla, who resigned in February and announced Chambers as her successor.
"Mr. Teixeira enthusiastically resumed his important role after treatment, but Mozilla did not want to have a leader with cancer," said Amy Kangas Alexander, an attorney at the law firm Stokes Lawrence, representing the plaintiff.
"When Mr. Teixeira refused to be marginalized due to his disabilities, Mozilla retaliated and placed him on leave against his will. Mozilla sidelined Mr. Teixeira at the very moment he needed to prepare his family for a possible future without him."
The complaint states that Teixeira, appointed in August 2022, helped halt a decade-long decline of the Firefox browser, which generates about 90% of Mozilla's revenue and is the company's sole profitable product. Additionally, he is credited with developing Mozilla's advertising business and artificial intelligence capabilities, as well as reducing investments in the costly Pocket service.
These and other successes led to discussions in September 2023, when Baker outlined a plan for Teixeira to become CEO. He then took a health-related leave, and before he could return, according to the complaint, Chambers was appointed interim CEO, and Baker was removed from the position of executive chairman of the board. She says it was her decision.
"The board's decision to dismiss Miss Baker was so abrupt that they did not begin the search for a successor, resulting in one of the board members, Miss Chambers, being appointed temporary CEO," the complaint said.
It is claimed that on the day Teixeira returned to work, he was instructed to lay off 50 people from the company, 40 of whom worked in his MozProd organization. He raised concerns about the layoff plan but found that Chehak forbade his subordinates from preparing a document outlining the logic and criteria for the layoffs. Further disagreements with Chehak led Teixeira to contest his dismissal.
"Mr. Teixeira had ethical concerns about the layoffs as they were largely motivated by a desire to increase Mozilla's profit margin, which was already profitable. Mr. Teixeira believed this conflicted with Mozilla's values as declared on the company's website: 'We are supported by a non-profit organization, which means we put people's interests ahead of corporate profits,'" the complaint states.
Teixeira's disagreements with management continued, resulting in a reduction of his bonuses after poor performance reviews in March 2024.
Around that time, according to the complaint, Chambers offered Teixeira a different position to make time for cancer treatment. By then, he was no longer receiving regular treatment. The following month, Teixeira told Chambers that he had been diagnosed with stage IV liver cancer and would need further treatment. After that, Chambers suggested transferring Teixeira to a new position as Senior Vice President of Technology Strategy, where he could work until the end of 2024. This would entail a 40% salary reduction – Teixeira declined the reduction.
Following Chambers' message to Teixeira's direct reports about adapting to his health problems (disclosure of which, as claimed, was made without consent), Teixeira wrote to Chehak on April 25:
"It has become evident that Mozilla simply finds it inconvenient to continue to employ me as CPO because I am ill with cancer. This is the sole reason that the Board and Laura are trying to push me into a lesser role with reduced pay in the clear hope that I will quietly leave."
In response to this note, Teixeira was given an ultimatum with three options: accept the new role and start work, accept the new role and take a long leave, or "decline this role and move to a conversation about separation." On May 23, 2024, Mozilla placed Teixeira on administrative leave and reassigned his subordinates to other managers. He is still listed on the Mozilla website as CPO.
The lawsuit alleges that Teixeira had no intention of quitting his job either before or after the diagnosis was made. The reason he needs to continue working is to support his family, including an adult daughter with disabilities and a wife who gave up other career opportunities to care for their daughter.
"Mr. Teixeira's cancer diagnosis underscores his need to continue in a leadership role in order to accumulate sufficient funds to support his wife and daughter if his lifespan is shortened at some point in the future," the lawsuit states.
The complaint against Mozilla and its executives alleges violations of the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) based on disabilities; retaliation and disclosure of health information; defamation; violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); the Washington State Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFML); and the Washington State Law Against Silence, which prohibits nondisclosure/non-disparagement provisions.
"We deny the allegations and intend to vigorously defend against this lawsuit. Mozilla has over 25 years of experience supporting high standards of integrity and compliance with all applicable laws. We look forward to presenting our defense in court and are confident that the facts will demonstrate that we acted appropriately. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not provide further comments," Mozilla said in a statement.
Source: The Register
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