Former Employee Sues Tesla For Doing Mass Layoffs, Elon Musk Considers It Trivial

Elon Musk considers Tesla employee lawsuit trivial. (photo: twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - Former employees of Tesla Inc., has filed a lawsuit against the US electric car company alleging their decision to carry out "mass layoffs" violated federal law. The reason is that Tesla did not provide prior notification of this termination of employment.

The lawsuit was filed on Sunday evening, June 19 in Texas by two workers who said they were laid off from Tesla's giant factory in Sparks, Nevada, this June. According to the lawsuit, more than 500 employees were laid off at the Nevada plant.

The workers accused the company of failing to comply with a federal law on mass layoffs that requires a 60-day notice period under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notice Act, according to the lawsuit.

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

"Tesla has just notified employees that their termination of employment will take effect immediately", the complaint said.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the world's richest person, said earlier this month he had a "very bad feeling" about the economy and that Tesla needed to cut staff by about 10%, according to an email seen by Reuters.

More than 20 people who identified themselves as Tesla employees said they were laid off, released, or laid off positions this month, according to online posts and interviews with Reuters.

Tesla, which has not commented on the number of layoffs, did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Musk, however, on Tuesday called the lawsuit "trivial."

"Don't read too much into pre-emptive lawsuits that have no standing", he said at the Qatar Economic Forum hosted by Bloomberg.

"It seems that everything Tesla-related gets a lot of clicks, whether it's trivial or significant. I'd put the lawsuit you're referring to in the trivial category", he said.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer representing the workers, told Reuters she was deeply concerned that the world's richest person would find it "trivial" that her company blatantly violated federal labor laws to protect workers.

"While two months' salary is certainly not a problem for him, it means a lot to the employees who made his company what it is", he added.

He said Tesla was offering some employees just one week of severance pay, adding that he was preparing an emergency motion with the courts to try to block Tesla from trying to get releases from employees in exchange for just one week of severance pay.

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court, West District of Texas.