Judge Upholds Elon Musk’s Remote Work Ban at X, For No

Elon Musk’s ban on working from home at X can stay, for now.

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit against the policy, which it argued discriminates against employees with disabilities, Reuters reports.

The case failed to sufficiently demonstrate how the mandate affects disabled employees specifically, according to US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin. She gave him four weeks to file an amended lawsuit with more detailed claims.

Dmitry Borodaenko, a former engineering manager at Twitter, filed the case in November 2022, shortly after Musk purchased X (then Twitter). Musk promptly began mass layoffs and banned working from home.

Borodaenko claims he was fired during this time after he refused to come into the office. He then filed this case, which argues the work from home ban violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to workers with disabilities. Borodaenko says he has a condition that makes him vulnerable to COVID-19.

“Borodaenko’s theory improperly relies on the assumption that all employees with disabilities necessarily required remote work as a reasonable accommodation,” says Martinez-Olguin, who presides over the Northern California district (i.e. San Francisco) and also works with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Musk has argued that working from home is a moral issue. He says it unfairly discriminates against employees who work in industries where they are required to go into work, such as factory workers and delivery drivers. Meanwhile, the white collar “laptop class is living in la-la land.”

Last month, another judge dismissed a case asking X to pay an additional $500 million in collective severance pay for the thousands of employees laid off after Musk took over in 2022.

So far, Musk’s HR policies have not converted into cash. X’s revenue fell 40% in the first half of 2023, Musk’s first year of ownership, Mashable reports. Advertisers have left the platform en masse, prompting X to sue the World Federation of Advertisers for violating antitrust laws.