Tesla is accused of firing two California-based employees for being part of a group that discussed and drafted letters critical of CEO Elon Musk’s strict return policy and Musk’s tweets, according to complaints filed by their lawyers and a Bloomberg report.
A draft letter asked Tesla executives to reconsider allowing all employees to return to the office, a policy introduced at the end of May. Another said Musk’s tweets violated Tesla’s anti-harassment policy. Both employees who filed a report were fired in June. One of them had just received a raise the month before and the other was told their conversations were “an attack” on the company, according to registrations with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The draft letters were never sent internally, Bloomberg reports, but both employees said they were fired for merely discussing the issues.
The case is yet another example of a Musk-owned company facing allegations of retaliation against workers taking class action over labor conditions in violation of federal labor laws. Employees have the right to participate in “protected coordinated activities”, including speaking with each other to gain support on a matter of shared employee concern. Earlier this year, eight former SpaceX employees claimed they were illegally fired after writing a letter calling for a stronger “zero tolerance” policy following allegations of sexual harassment against Musk.
Those employees also filed a complaint with the NLRB, retaining the same San Francisco law firm as the former Tesla employees.
Around the time of that complaint, hundreds of SpaceX employees signed an open letter denouncing Musk’s behavior on Twitter, calling it an embarrassment and a distraction to the company.
Tesla has been the subject of lawsuits and complaints over the years for a number of employee-related issues, including, but not limited to, sexual harassment, racial discrimination and harassment, and failure to provide 60-day notice of layoffs.
Tesla could not be reached for comment as it closed its public relations department in 2019.
