Tesla tells employees to come to work
HR director says the company has received ‘conflicting guidance’
Tesla on Wednesday told employees on its production line that they should continue coming to work in an apparent defiance of a county order to suspend manufacturing operations on its electric cars amid a Bay Areawide shelter-in-place order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
In an email sent to Tesla employees Wednesday morning and obtained by this news organization, Valerie Workman, Tesla’s human relations leader in North America, said that the company had received “conflicting guid
ance from different levels of government” about what areas of its operations it can keep open under the seven-county shutdown and would continue to operate with “essential employees” at its factory in Fremont.
Employees “should continue to report to work if you are in an essential function: production, service, deliveries, testing and supporting groups as discussed with your manager,” Workman wrote.
She added that employees not assigned to support
an essential function might be asked to make a “temporary relocation to support essential functions, or you may need to be on call.”
A day earlier, Alameda County spokesman Ray Kelly said the county administrator and legal counsel had determined Tesla’s car manufacturing was not “essential for us to get through this health crisis.”
While grocery stores, gas stations and banks, for example, can continue to operate under the seven-county public health order, Kelly said, Tesla would have to scale back work at its Fremont facility to minimum operations such as maintaining the plant’s infrastructure,
securing inventory and processing payroll.
On Wednesday morning, however, the parking lots at Tesla appeared nearly full, and big-rig trucks inside the perimeter could be seen with their lights on. The company told county officials it had reduced its on-site workforce, but questions remained about whether work was being done at the factory outside of what is allowed under the shelter-in-place order. With 10,000 total workers, Tesla is among the region’s top employers.
Kelly said talks between local officials and Tesla are ongoing.
“They continue to work
with the county and the city of Fremont,” said Kelly, a sergeant with the sheriff’s office. “We’ve already seen them make some progress, there’s good negotiations, they are beginning to start to comply, it looks like, with the directive.”
Meanwhile, Ford and General Motors on Wednesday suspended production at all North America plants until March 30.
“We have been taking extraordinary precautions around the world to keep our plant environments safe, and recent developments in North America make it clear this is the right thing to do now,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a
statement.
Tim Bajarin, tech industry analyst with Creative Strategies, said he thinks Tesla will follow the lead of other businesses that are honoring the shelter-inplace order.
“Tesla may be looking at the legality of the order before acting on it,” Bajarin said. “I have no doubt that if the order is legally binding, Tesla will follow the order.”
Representatives for Tesla, including Workman, did not respond to requests for comment.
Chief executive Elon Musk — who has not commented publicly on the company’s compliance with the shelter-in-place order — told employees in an email earlier this week that it would be “totally OK” for them to stay at home, but that he intended to be at work.
In her Wednesday email, Workman told Tesla employees that there would be “no disciplinary action for attendance based on health or impossibility to come to work.” The email added that workers who stay home because they are sick or concerned about exposure to coronavirus could use paid time off or take unpaid time off.