In June, a lawsuit was filed in the United States against Mozilla Corporation and three of its executives for alleged discrimination against a person with disabilities and retaliation against Chief Product Officer (CPO) Steve Teixeira. According to complaintfiled in the King County Superior Court in Washington state, Teixeira was nominated to serve as Mozilla’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) when he was diagnosed with ocular melanoma on October 3, 2023. Teixeira took a medical leave of absence for cancer treatment from October 30, 2023 to February 1, 2024.
«Immediately upon his return, Mozilla launched a campaign to demote or fire Mr. Teixeira, citing unfounded concerns and assumptions about his abilities as a person with cancer. Interim Chief Executive Officer Laura Chambers and Chief Human Resources Officer Dani Chehak made it clear to Mr. Teixeira: He could not continue as Chief Product Officer, and he could not continue as a Mozilla employee beyond 2024 — because of his diagnosis,» the complaint states.
The complaint is directed against Chambers and Chehak, as well as Mitchell Baker, the former CEO of Mozilla, who resigned in February and announced Chambers as her successor.
«Mr. Teixeira was enthusiastic about resuming his important role after treatment, but Mozilla did not want to tolerate an executive with cancer,» said Amy Kangas Alexander, an attorney at Stokes Lawrence, the law firm representing the plaintiff.
«When Mr. Teixeira refused to be marginalized by his disability, Mozilla retaliated and placed him on leave against his will. Mozilla suspended Mr. Teixeira at the very moment he needed to prepare his family for the possibility of a future without him».
The complaint alleges that Teixeira, appointed in August 2022, helped halt a decade-long decline in Firefox browserwhich generates about 90% of Mozilla’s revenue and is the company’s only profitable product. In addition, 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 allegedly led to a conversation in September 2023 when Baker outlined a plan for Teixeira to become CEO. He then took a medical leave of absence, and before he could return, according to the complaint, Chambers was appointed interim CEO and Baker was removed as executive chairman of the board. She says it was her decision.
«The board’s decision to fire Ms. Baker was so sudden that they did not begin looking for a successor, resulting in the appointment of one of the board members, Ms. Chambers, as interim CEO», the complaint says.
It is alleged that on the day Teixeira returned to work, he was instructed to dismiss 50 people from the company, 40 of whom worked in his organization, MozProd. He raised questions about the dismissal plan, but found that Cechak had forbidden his subordinates to prepare a document on the logic and selection criteria for the dismissals. Further disagreements with Cechak led Teixeira to appeal the dismissal.
«Mr. Teixeira had ethical concerns about the layoffs because they were mainly motivated by a desire to increase profit margins at Mozilla, which was already operating at a profit. Mr. Teixeira believed that this was contrary to Mozilla’s values, which are declared on the company’s website: «We are backed by a non-profit organization, which means we put people’s interests first, not corporate profits», — the complaint states.
Teixeira’s disagreements with management continued, leading to a reduction in his bonuses after a negative performance review in March 2024.
Around that time, the complaint says, Chambers suggested that Teixeira move to another position to free up 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 four liver cancer and would need to undergo additional treatment. After that, Chambers offered to transfer Teixeira to a new position of senior vice president of technology strategy, where he could work until the end of 2024. This would have resulted in a 40% pay cut, and Teixeira refused the demotion.
Following Chambers’ communication to Teixeira’s direct reports about the need to accommodate his health issues (disclosed without consent, allegedly), Teixeira wrote to Cekhak on April 25:
«It has become apparent that Mozilla is simply uncomfortable with continuing to use me as CPO because I have cancer. That’s the only reason why the Board and Laura are trying to push me into a smaller role with reduced pay in the obvious 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 working, accept the new role and take a long vacation, or «not accept the role and move on to talk about a» breakup. On May 23, 2024, Mozilla placed Teixeira on administrative leave and handed over his subordinates to other leaders. He is still specified on the Mozilla website as a CPO.
The lawsuit claims that Teixeira had no intention of stopping working either before or after his diagnosis. The reason he needed to continue working was to support his family, including an adult daughter with disabilities and a wife who gave up other career opportunities to care for her daughter.
«Mr. Teixeira’s cancer diagnosis makes his need to continue working in his executive position more urgent in order to accumulate sufficient funds to support his wife and daughter if his life expectancy is shortened at some point in the future,» the lawsuit says.
The complaint against Mozilla and its executives alleges violations of the Washington Law Against Disability Discrimination (WLAD) on the basis of disability; retaliation and disclosure of health information; defamation; violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); the Washington State Family and Medical Leave Act (PFML); and the Washington State Hush Now Act, which prohibits nondisclosure/non-denigration provisions.
«We deny the allegations and intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this lawsuit. Mozilla has more than 25 years of experience in 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 acted appropriately. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be providing further comment,» Mozilla said in a statement.
Source: The Register