Electric transport startup Rivian has been sued by one in every of its former workers. Per , Laura Schwab, an government who was a vice chairman of gross sales and advertising and marketing on the automaker till final month, filed a gender discrimination criticism with the California Superior Court in Orange County on Thursday. In the lawsuit, Schwab alleges she was fired by Rivian after she complained of a “toxic ‘bro culture’” that noticed different executives exclude her from conferences and ignore her recommendation.

“The culture at Rivian was actually the worst I’ve experienced in over 20 years in the automotive industry,” Schwab advised The Journal. A veteran of the automotive trade, Schwab held government posts at Aston Martin Lagonda and Jaguar Land Rover earlier than she joined Rivian in November 2020.

According to the outlet, Schwab tried to push the corporate to deal with quite a few issues whereas she was there. In one occasion, she allegedly tried to inform the opposite executives on Rivian’s management staff that the corporate had underpriced its automobiles. In yet one more scenario, she tried to boost issues concerning the high quality of the automaker’s manufacturing course of. In the previous case, the corporate allegedly initially dismissed her recommendation solely to later observe by on it after a male government raised the identical concern.

The go well with comes forward of Rivian’s the place the corporate will search to boost as a lot as $9.6 billion in further funding. It additionally lately R1T vehicles for purchasers. More broadly, the go well with comes as a number of different firms within the tech house face scrutiny over their gender equality practices. Most notably, there’s Activision Blizzard, which was in July for fostering what it described as a sexist “frat boy” office tradition. The fallout from that lawsuit has been far-reaching. Following months of strain from workers, the corporate in circumstances involving sexual harassment and discrimination and put in place a zero-tolerance stance towards harassment.

Citing the quiet interval forward of its IPO, Rivian declined to touch upon the criticism.