Tesla has again made headlines for the mass layoffs it conducted in the months of May and June. Two former employees of Tesla — who were laid off during the mass layoff activity, where 500 employees at the Company’s gigafactory plant in Sparks, Nevada were asked to leave— have asked the US courts to protect the interest of the affected employees.
John Lynch and Daxton Hartsfield, the two employees who have moved the Texas court alleging that Tesla has been seeking releases from employees by offering a week or two-week’s salary as severance package to the employees. As per the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, an employer is required to pay at least 60 days of wages as severance.
Both the employees are seeking that the courts intervene and stop Tesla from making employees sign the release letter.
Earlier, Lynch and Daxton had filed a lawsuit against the firm for illegally executing the mass layoff. They alleged that the Company had violated the WARN Act by not giving the required 60-days’ prior notice before laying off the employees.
Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla, had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he is having a bad feeling about the market and that the Company will lay off about 10 per cent of the employees.
Although Musk had stated that the Company will only lay off salaried employees, Tesla recently fired 200 employees from the San Mateo office, who were part of the Autopilot Technology Systems team. All of these employees were hourly earners.
