Mozilla CPO Sues Company Over Cancer-Related Disability Discrimination

• Mozilla’s product chief is suing the company over alleged discriminatory practices stemming from his cancer diagnosis.
• The executive claims he was the Mozilla CEO-to-be before the company’s board appointed member Laura Chambers as interim CEO.

Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser, is in the throes of a lawsuit filed by its chief product officer, Steve Teixeira. The lawsuit, which extends to three company executives – CEO Laura Chambers, chief people officer Dani Chehak, and former CEO Mitchell Baker, alleges that the company discriminated against him because he had cancer.

Teixeira said he was poised to become Baker’s successor as Mozilla Corporation CEO before board member Chambers was appointed interim CEO in January 2024. Since being hired in August 2022, Teixeira has led the MozProd organization and has been responsible for the strategy, delivery, and operation of Mozilla’s entire commercial product portfolio.

Under his leadership, Teixeira claims the company increased Firefox users, a shift from the prevalent downtrend before he joined. Firefox remains Mozilaa’s only profitable product.

Baker’s abrupt exit and Chambers’ assuming the role were preceded by Teixeira’s diagnosis with ocular melanoma on October 3, 2023, for which he was on a 90-day leave of absence for treatment until February 1, 2024.

In the lawsuit, Teixeira claims that when he returned after his treatment, his first task was to lay off 50 employees, 40 of whom were from MozProd, and take responsibility for the decision-making.

Later in March, Teixeira received a poor performance review citing the inability of his leadership team, including SVP of Strategy and Operations Suba Vasudevan and Chief Marketing Officer Lindsey O’Brien, to execute tasks successfully in his absence and was also frozen out of meetings.

As a result, Teixeira received only 50% of his bonus pay and was suggested to move into a different role. After he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in the liver on April 6, Teixeira was demoted to SVP, Technology Strategy, until December 31, 2024, with a reduced compensation slashed by 40%.

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“Your 3 options are to accept the role as presented and begin work [ ]; to accept the role as presented but go on long term leave; or to not accept the role and move to a severance conversation,” Chambers responded to Teixeira’s email where he expressed dismay at the demotion.

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The lawsuit reads:

“Immediately upon his return, Mozilla campaigned to demote or terminate Mr. Teixeira citing groundless concerns and assumptions about his capabilities as an individual living with cancer. Interim Chief Executive Officer Laura Chambers and Chief People Officer Dani Chehak were clear with Mr. Teixeira: he could not continue as Chief Product Officer — and could not continue as a Mozilia employee in any capacity beyond 2024 — because of his diagnosis. When Mr. Teixeira opposed this discriminatory action, Mozilla responded by unilaterally placing him on indefinite administrative leave, effectively disappearing both Mr. Teixeira and his complaints of discrimination.”

Teixeira is claiming the violations of one federal and three Washington state laws by Mozilla Corporation. These include:

• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for taking into account his sickness absence in evaluating his performance and taking subsequent actions like demoting him and placing him on administrative leave
• Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) over disability discrimination practices, disclosure of health information, defamation
• Washington State Family and Medical Leave Act (PFML) for intentional non-compliance with disability-related Paid Family and Medical Leave
• Washington State Silenced No More Act for discharging, discriminating, and retaliating against him for disclosing what he thinks is illegal discrimination.

Mozilla Corporation is expected to recount its story and defend itself in court.

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