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A former Neuralink employee has sued the company, alleging she was forced to work with monkeys infected with the Herpes B virus while pregnant.
According to the suit, filed on Friday in California, the worker – Lindsay Short – was scratched on her skin by the animals.
The lawsuit also includes accusations of retaliation, wrongful termination, and discrimination based on her gender, with Short claiming she was fired after informing her supervisors she was pregnant.
In the complaint, Short says she was transferred to a Neuralink site in Fremont, California, in 2022, where she discovered “a work environment fraught with blame, shame, and impossible deadlines.”
Neuralink – an Elon Musk-founded start-up that builds brain-computer implants designed to restore the cognitive function of paralyzed patients – was criticized in February 2022 for the mistreatment of animals including monkeys at a facility at the University of California.
A HR failure at Neuralink?
Per the lawsuit, Short was both scratched by a herpes-infected monkey through her glove and directly on her face, in two separate incidents.
Short claims Neuralink did not give her sufficient safety equipment and made her perform unfamiliar procedures.
She also alleges that when she requested medical treatment, she was threatened with “severe repercussions” if she made a similar request in the future.
Short says Neuralink also promised her flexible working hours to help her balance work and home life, but never delivered on the scheme. Instead, according to the complaint, she was demoted in May 2023 after being promoted two months earlier.
The lawsuit then claims Short was fired the day after she informed Neuralink’s HR department she was pregnant—which the company said was performance-related.
Neuralink did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune, which broke the story.
It marks yet another legal complaint against a company owned by Elon Musk.
Last week, eight engineers filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, claiming they suffered wrongful termination under California Law for raising concerns about sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
The group claims Musk ordered their dismissal in 2022 after they circulated a letter criticizing him as a "distraction and embarrassment" and urging the company to repudiate sexually explicit remarks he made on social media.
