Unpaid leave ends for Tesla workers
Electric carmaker Tesla told some employees at its Fremont plant they will be required to come to work starting Friday, despite ongoing concerns about the coronavirus.
The plant restarted its production lines last week, before Alameda County gave the company formal sanction under local health orders. At the time, Tesla managers told workers worried about contracting the virus they could stay home without pay.
County officials agreed over the weekend to allow the plant to reopen with more safety gear, revamped cleaning procedures and other measures.
Employees working from home will continue to do so, but production workers are required to come to work starting Friday, according to an internal email from human resources executive Valerie Workman obtained by The
Chronicle.
Workman wrote that employees worried about exposing those they live with to the virus could remain home until the end of the month without pay and would need to sign a document confirming they live with a person vulnerable to the virus.
The email did not specify what would happen if an employee was still concerned about exposing someone they live with to the virus after May 31.
Tesla did not respond to an emailed request for comment asking for further details about the new policies.
A federal law passed because of the pandemic specifies that employers with between 50 and 500 workers have to make certain payments and accommodations available to employees through the end of the year. Tesla’s large workforce — over 10,000 people at the Fremont plant alone — make the company exempt under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, according to Annette Idalski, chair of the labor and employment practice at law firm Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
“With employers that have over 500 employees that are considered to be large companies, the thought is they could probably offer some type of paid leave because of the size of the company,”
Idalski said of the reasoning behind the exemption for larger companies.
She noted any workers who do contract the virus could bring legal claims against Tesla, but that it would be “incredibly hard to prove that you contracted the virus from any one place.”
While Tesla does not appear to be offering paid or unpaid leave for most workers who are generally concerned about the coronavirus, the email from Workman also said employees under company or doctorordered quarantine, or those who have CO
VID19 symptoms or have tested positive for the coronavirus, should remain home and will be contacted by the company about pay and benefits.
Some workers are receiving increased pay through the end of the month “in appreciation for your work during the challenging time,” Workman said.
Last month the company announced a round of costcutting measures, with executives and supervisors taking pay cuts. One employee at the plant said hourly employees are receiving a 25% increase in pay, while some supervisors continue to draw salaries that were cut 10%. Some supervisors work alongside employees building cars on the production line and put themselves at the same risk of infection, the employee said.
The Chronicle agreed to grant the employee anonymity under its anonymous source policy because the person was not authorized to discuss plant operations and faced a reasonable fear of retaliation by Tesla for speaking to the media.
Tesla closed its Fremont plant in March after initially defying local shelterinplace orders for days, eventually relenting and sending employees home.
The company released a plan for revamping its safety measures, including providing protective equipment, conducting temperature checks and enforcing distancing in the factory, over the second weekend in May.
The Chronicle previously reported that Tesla had begun preparing to restart some car production in Fremont in violation of local shelterinplace orders as early as May 6.
Even as county officials and Tesla executives said they were in negotiations to get a safety plan approved and reopen the plant with approval from local authorities around May 18, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter the factory would open ahead of that schedule. The company sued the county in federal court, arguing that looser state rules allowing some manufacturing applied. The state rules cited by Tesla said that counties could impose stricter rules.
That suit was dropped Wednesday by Tesla.