Former Tesla workers claim they were fired for using maternity and sick leave
In February 2018, Devon Beccera started working at the Tesla Giga factory in Sparks, Nevada. A few months into her employment she was promoted to supervisor , making about $25 an hour. She found out in July that year that she was pregnant, and informed management she planned on taking maternity leave in February, 2019, once she became eligible.
Instead, on 14 December 2018, Beccera was fired.
“Nevada is a right-to-work state, so they didn’t need any sort of reason for firing me, but it was very convenient to fire me two weeks before Christmas, and about 50 days before my maternity leave started,” she said.
It meant that 28 weeks into her pregnancy, Beccera lost her medical insurance and only source of income, as her husband was a stay-at-home dad. They later struggled to pay for diapers and other essentials for their newborn.
A Tesla spokesperson said Beccera’s termination was due to performance issues.
Over the past few years, Tesla has faced numerous lawsuits, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charges and allegations that have included unfair firings, union busting, and a work atmosphere that enabled racial discrimination and sexual harassment. In March, an NLRB settlement mandated Tesla post flyers that affirmed workers’ rights to organize at their Fremont, California plant. A few months later, workers at Tesla’s Buffalo, New York plant filed federal labor charges accusing Tesla of firing workers for union organizing.
Now a Guardian investigation has revealed numerous cases where former workers claim they were unfairly fired and current workers allege threats of termination and disciplinary action for taking sick days.
Jennifer Peercy worked at Tesla as a customer care agent in Las Vegas, Nevada, since August 2018. A mother of four and more than five months into her pregnancy, her colleagues offered her their own time off to help with childcare. But Tesla management told her the time wasn’t transferable between employees. She stopped taking it, but was fired two weeks later for doing so.
“If I knew that, I never would have taken it,” Peercy said. “I’m 22 weeks pregnant without a job or income and four girls to care for.”
She’s currently applying for unemployment and looking for jobs while still hoping to return to Tesla . Peercy provided the Guardian with her termination letter and an email she sent the chief executive officer, Elon Musk, which resulted in another follow-up from an HR staffer who reaffirmed her termination.
“While we’re sympathetic to her personal situation and work hard to do the right thing by our employees, using another employee’s personal information to obtain their benefits – with or without their permission – violates the benefit policy, jeopardizes employee’s access to those benefits and is not appropriate behavior we can support,” said a Tesla spokesperson.
Maggie Aranda worked at Tesla’s Fremont plant for 19 months before she was fired on 11 June.
“I had permission from my supervisor to use my phone to help my husband and myself. My husband was very sick at that time. My supervisor then told me two hours into a shift to clock out and go home. They did an ‘investigation’ and then fired me for cellphone usage,” Aranda said.
She noted her husband, Carlos Aranda, who also worked at Tesla but had been on medical leave, submitted a letter of resignation from Tesla on 24 June but received a response from Tesla human resources that he, too, was involuntarily terminated on 26 June. Aranda said they are now currently homeless due to losing their jobs, still suffering from injuries sustained on the job, and are trying to raise money via GoFundMe to help get back on their feet.
“With only me working we got behind,” Aranda added. “The landlord worked with us for a while but it got to be too much and when I lost my job we had nothing, so we had to leave.”
A Tesla spokesperson claimed Maggie Aranda’s termination was due to cellphone usage at work, and Carlos Aranda was terminated over a tweet that violated Tesla standards.
At Tesla’s Fremont plant, several current workers claimed the company uses a point-system attendance policy and uses it to deter workers from taking sick days and prevent workers from promotions.
“I didn’t get leveled up even after two years of being a team lead because I had a couple of days where I was two minutes late to clock in because the parking lot was so hard to find spots,” said one Tesla worker who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
The worker noted they had been threatened with termination after a supervisor asked them to work one Saturday, and the worker agreed if they could leave early to cash their check to pay rent.
“He said ‘yes’, and then wrote me up as an early-out, which they consider to be just like a late or call-in,” the worker said. The next week the worker claimed they were suspended for a day without pay, and threatened with termination for absence infractions.
“Two separate times I got points on my record for being out sick,” said another Tesla worker. “In my new department, we get points on our record for being out sick because they consider it an unplanned day off.”
The Guardian obtained a copy of Tesla’s attendance policy, which was revised on 23 June. The policy includes an attendance point system where workers with more than three months of employment face termination if they accrue 4.5 attendance points in a six month period.
“It’s at the discretion of the supervisor,” said a third Tesla employee. “If they want to get rid of you, it’s very easy to say an absence was unscheduled or not approved.”
Tesla declined to comment on record about their attendance policy or why it was recently revised, though a spokesperson denied their attendance policy penalized workers for use of paid time off.
I’m 22 weeks pregnant without a job or income and four girls to care for. Jennifer Peercy