Tesla employees claim that they were illegally terminated for complaining Elon Musk’s tweets, and the strict policy of returning to work.

Workers claim they were fired because of Musk’s tweets.Patrick Pleul/AP
Two Tesla employees claim that they were fired illegally for criticizing Elon Musk’s company policy and policies. Through their lawyers, they filed complaints with National Labor Relations Board. Earlier this year, some SpaceX employees filed similar claims.

According to complaints filed earlier in December with the National Labor Relations Board, two Tesla employees claim they were fired illegally for complaining about company policies.

According to filings, workers claimed they were let loose to discuss their working conditions. This included Tesla’s failure “to enforce its non-harassment policies and its implementations of its post-COVID returns to office policy,” the filings state. Discussion of working conditions is protected under US labor law. Bloomberg reported the first time they complained.

Tesla didn’t respond to our request for comment.

According to their lawyers, the employees were part of a group that drafted letters for Tesla’s executive team. Lawyers said that they were fired after the letters were circulated but not before they were discussed in internal chat groups.

One letter requested that the company change its strict return-to office policy, which was announced in May and required all Tesla employees work at least 40 hours per week from an office. Musk said that Musk was not in favor of the plan and suggested that people pretend to be working elsewhere.

One attorney stated that Musk’s tweets were “sexualized” and “gendered”, in violation of Tesla’s antiharassment policy.

A month after receiving a performance-based increase, one employee was fired. According to a filing, the other employee was told that organizing employee talks was an “attack” against Tesla.

Before, Tesla was in hot water over labor issues.

The NLRB found Tesla had broken the law in 2021 when it fired a union activist. The NLRB ordered Musk to remove a tweet it claimed was a threat for labor organizers. The board in August found that Musk had violated workers’ rights by preventing them from wearing union shirts on the job.

A group of SpaceX employees filed a complaint in November claiming they were fired for writing an open letter criticizing Musk’s conduct. Musk founded the rocket company and runs it. The same attorneys at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP represent both sets of employees.

Business Insider has the original article.
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By: tlevin@insider.com (Tim Levin)
Title: Two Tesla employees say they were illegally fired for complaining about Elon Musk’s tweets and strict return-to-office policy
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/tesla-factory-employees-allege-illegal-firing-criticism-elon-musk-covid-2022-12
Published Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 22:02:53 +0000