Tesla sued by former employees over ‘mass layoff’

Former employees of Tesla Inc filed a lawsuit against the U.S.-based electric car company claiming that its decision to conduct a “mass layoff”, in violation of federal law, was made by the company without providing advance notice.

Two workers filed the lawsuit late Sunday in Texas. saidThey were fired in June from Tesla’s gigafactory facility in Sparks (Nevada).

According to the suit more than 500 employees were fired at the Nevada factory.

According to the lawsuit, the workers claim that the company failed to comply with federal laws regarding mass layoffs. These laws require a 60-day notice period under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

They seek class action status for all former Tesla employees in the United States who were laid off without prior notice in May or June.

“Tesla simply informed employees that their terminations would take effect immediately,” the complaint stated. said.

Tesla, which has not responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla and the richest person on earth. saidAccording to Reuters, he felt “super bad” about the economy earlier this month and Tesla needed to reduce staff by around 10%.

More than 20 people identified themselves as Tesla employees saidAccording to interviews and online postings by Reuters, they were either laid off or let go.

John Lynch and Daxton Harsfield filed an action seeking pay and benefits during the 60-day notification period.

“It’s quite shocking that Tesla would just blatantly violat federal labor law by laying off such many workers without providing the required notification,” Shannon LissRiordan, an attorney representing workers, told Reuters.

She saidTesla is offering employees one week of severance. She also stated that she is preparing an urgent motion with a court in order to stop Tesla from trying to obtain releases from employees in return for one week of severance.

Musk dismissed the lawsuit as trivial

“Let’s be honest. readHe said, “Too much into a pre-emptive suit that has no standing.” saidBloomberg organized the Qatar Economic Forum.

“It seems like everything related to Tesla gets lots of clicks. That lawsuit you refer to would fall under the trivial category.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court Western District of Texas.

Reporting by Akriti Sharma, Bengaluru, and Hyunjoo Jin, San Francisco; editing and transcription by Richard Pullin & Jason Neely