A U.S. labor board official concluded on Tuesday that supervisors at Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Florida service center had broken the law by instructing workers not to raise concerns to higher level management or discuss salary and other working conditions.
According to the ruling by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas, management at the Orlando repair company improperly silenced workers in 2021 after several of them raised concerns about new hires’ higher pay.
The judgement states that workers learned that new hires at the collision center were being paid a higher hourly rate than current employees in late 2021. According to the decision, a number of employees complained, including a technician who spoke with a Tesla vice president and requested that his grievance be conveyed to the director of human resources at the business.
Rosas alleged that 25 workers at the service center were told during a meeting by supervisors not to voice concerns about their salary or other working conditions to higher level managers. Weeks later, the decision said that the technician who had complained had been let go.
The judge ruled that attempts to intimidate workers infringed on their fundamental freedom to organize and demand better working conditions under American labor law. Tesla was told to stop infringing workers’ rights, post notices of the violations in the service center, and send emails to all affected parties.
It was decided shortly after a U.S. appeals court upheld an NLRB finding that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had violated the law by tweeting that workers would lose stock options if they joined a union.
