Steve Teixeira, a former Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter executive in the Seattle area who became chief product officer at Mozilla Corp. nearly two years ago, is suing the company for alleged discrimination and other claims after taking medical leave for cancer treatment.
The suit, filed June 24 in King County Superior Court in Seattle, alleges that Mozilla and some of its executives “campaigned to demote or terminate Mr. Teixeira citing groundless concerns and assumptions about his capabilities as an individual living with cancer.”
Mozilla, whose products include the Firefox web browser, denied the allegations and said it will “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit. A spokesperson said in a statement that the company is “confident that the facts will demonstrate that we have acted appropriately.”
In addition to the company, the suit names as defendants the Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla CEO Laura Chambers, former CEO and current Executive Chair Mitchell Baker, and Chief People Officer Dani Chehak.
Teixeira worked for nearly 14 years at Microsoft in areas including developer tools and technologies, before serving as Facebook’s director of program management and design, and Twitter’s vice president of product.
According to the suit, Teixeira joined Mozilla in August 2022 with the understanding that he would ultimately be positioned to succeed Baker as Mozilla CEO.
Teixeira received high marks internally for his performance leading the Mozilla Products Group, including growing Firefox’s desktop market share, automating Mozilla’s display advertising products, repairing its services infrastructure, overseeing the acquisition of Fakespot, and expanding Mozilla’s AI initiatives.
In a sign of his significance to Mozilla, the San Francisco-based company opened a Seattle-area office in February 2023 because Teixeira lived in the area, the suit says.
Teixeira, 52, was diagnosed in October 2023 with ocular melanoma, a rare but treatable form of cancer. He took an approved 90-day medical leave through early February under the Family Medical Leave Act, the suit says.
Shortly before Teixeira returned, in early February, Baker stepped down as CEO, returning to the role of executive chairman. Chambers, a Mozilla board member, was named to serve as CEO for the remainder of the year.
After he returned, the suit says, Teixeira was asked to carry out and falsely take responsibility for a decision to make job cuts that were planned in his absence. He questioned the need for the layoffs and raised concerns about the potential to disproportionately impact women and people of color, the suit says.
In March, he received a negative performance review, according to the suit. The review said, in part, “Your organizational design…resulted in a leadership team that could not succeed in your absence, which is fundamentally an organizational weakness and risk to the business.”
He was back at work full-time, no longer receiving treatment, the suit says.
In early April, Teixeira told Chambers that he had received a separate cancer diagnosis. According to the suit, a neuroendocrine tumor on his pancreas metastasized to his liver. Responding to a message from GeekWire this week, Teixeira said both tumors are small, he’s not in active treatment, and the overall prognosis looks “very good.”
On April 24, the suit says, Mozilla formally proposed to demote Teixeira to senior vice president of technology strategy, with a 40% reduction in total compensation. He declined to accept the role change.
He had not requested additional flexibility related to his diagnosis, the suit says.
The suit alleges that Chambers pressed ahead, informing other Mozilla leaders about the demotion, and telling Teixeira’s direct reports that “it would be tough for him to continue to run a large team because of his health,” despite lacking his consent to share information about his health with others inside the company.
Teixeira wrote to Chehak, the chief people officer, that “it has become apparent that Mozilla is simply uncomfortable continuing to employ me as CPO because I have cancer. It’s the only reason I’ve been given for efforts by the Board and Laura to push me into a diminished role with reduced pay in obvious hope that I will leave quietly.”
According to the suit, Chambers told Teixeira two days later that his options were to accept and start working in the new role; accept the role and take a long-term leave; or decline the role and “move to a severance conversation.”
Teixeira was placed on administrative leave May 23 against his wishes and without explanation, the suit says. As of publication of this article, he is still listed as chief product officer on Mozilla’s leadership page.
Here is Mozilla’s full statement on the case:
“We are aware of the lawsuit filed against Mozilla. We deny the allegations and intend to vigorously defend against this lawsuit. Mozilla has a 25+ year track record of maintaining the highest 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 have acted appropriately. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be providing further comments at this time.”
The complaint alleges discrimination, retaliation, defamation, and unlawful disclosure of medical information, among other claims. The suit seeks a judgment for an amount to be proven at trial. See the full text of the lawsuit below.
Teixeira v. Mozilla et al by GeekWire on Scribd
https://ift.tt/2ZKeAhX July 11, 2024 at 11:14PM GeekWire
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