In February, 2018, Devon Beccera)Devon Beccera in Tesla Super Factory in sparks, Nevada. A few months after joining the company, she was promoted to supervisor with an hourly salary of about $25. In July of the same year, she found out that she was pregnant and informed the management that once she met the requirements, she planned to take maternity leave in February 2019. However, Tesla fired Becara on December 14th, 2018.
Becara said: "Nevada is a state with the right to work, so they don’t need any reason to fire me, but it is very convenient to fire me two weeks before Christmas, that is, 50 days before I start my maternity leave."
This means that after 28 weeks of pregnancy, Becara lost her medical insurance and the only source of income, because her husband is a full-time father. Later, they struggled to buy diapers and other necessities for newborns.
In this regard, a Tesla spokesman said that Becara’s departure was due to work performance problems.
In the past few years, Tesla has faced numerous lawsuits and accusations from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), including unfair dismissal of employees, dissolution of trade unions, and a working atmosphere that leads to racial discrimination and sexual harassment.
In March this year, a settlement agreement of the National Labor Relations Board of the United States confirmed Tesla workers’ right to form trade unions at their factory in fremont, California. A few months later, workers at Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, new york, filed a federal labor lawsuit, accusing Tesla of dismissing workers for unionization.
In December 2018, under the joint organization of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Steelworkers union, some Tesla employees began to form trade unions in order to strive for higher salaries. Previously, Tesla had successfully prevented the United Auto Workers’ Union from trying to form a trade union at the fremont Automobile Factory in California.
In the past few years, Tesla and has been notorious for undermining employees’ unionization. In February 2017, Musk accused a factory worker of discrediting the company, who outlined some problems of Tesla on the blog platform Medium. In the same month, Michael Sanchez, an employee of Tesla, claimed that he was asked out of the factory by the security guard because he handed out leaflets to his colleagues to form a trade union.
Now, according to a survey in The Guardian, many former employees claimed that they were unfairly dismissed by Tesla, while the current employees claimed that they were threatened with dismissal and disciplinary action because they called in sick.
Jennifer Peercy has been working in Tesla since August 2018 as a customer service agent in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a mother who was pregnant for four months, her colleagues provided her with vacation time to help take care of her children. However, Tesla management told her that employees could not take time off during this period. She was fired two weeks later.
"If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken a vacation. I am 22 weeks pregnant, with no job, no income and four daughters to take care of. " Piercy said,
Pearcey is currently applying for unemployment benefits while looking for a job, and still hopes to return to Tesla. Peercy provided her dismissal letter to The Guardian and sent an email to CEO Elon Musk, and then a human resources employee reconfirmed her dismissal.
A Tesla spokesperson said, "Although we sympathize with her personal situation, she violated the regulations without permission."
Maggie Aranda, another employee, worked in Tesla’s fremont factory for 19 months and was fired on June 11th.
Aranda claimed that Tesla was fired for discovering that she was using a mobile phone at work, and her husband Carlos Aranda was also fired.
A spokesperson for Tesla claimed that Aranda was fired for using a mobile phone at work, while Carlos was fired for a tweet that violated Tesla standards.
At Tesla’s factory in fremont, several employees claimed that the company used a point-based attendance policy to prevent employees from taking sick leave and being promoted.
"Because it is difficult to find a parking space in the parking garage, I was two minutes late as a group leader and I haven’t been promoted for two years since then." A Tesla worker who asked for anonymity said.
The above-mentioned workers pointed out that they were asked to go to work by a supervisor on a Saturday and were finally threatened with dismissal. The following week, they were given a day off without pay and fired for violating absenteeism regulations.
Another Tesla employee said: "I have been scored twice for sick leave. In my new department, we were deducted for taking sick leave because they thought it was an unplanned day. "
The Guardian obtained Tesla’s revised attendance policy on June 23rd. The policy includes an attendance system. If employees who have been employed for more than three months accumulate 4.5 points in attendance within six months, they will face dismissal.
"This is the decision of the supervisor," said the third employee of Tesla. "If they want to fire you, it’s easy to say that your absence was unplanned or not approved."
Tesla declined to comment on its attendance policy or explain why it was revised recently. However, a spokesman denied that their attendance policy was a punishment for employees who used paid vacations. (Li Shusheng)