Earlier this month, Musk told Tesla executives in an email that they should cut 10 percent of their workforce and stop hiring because of “over-feeling” about the economy. Later, the CEO decided to clarify Tesla’s redundancies in an email to all employees. He claimed that the 10% reduction would be due to the “number of employees” due to Tesla’s excessive staff after a long phase of development. Tesla increased the layoffs last week, and we reported that, contrary to what Musk said earlier, they included hourly-paid employees in service, sales, and delivery that were also affected by the layoffs. Commenting on the layoffs, the CEO said today that the company now aims to reduce its workforce by 3% to 3.5% (Bloomberg): “We have grown very quickly on the employee side,” Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg News editor John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday. “In a year from now, I think the number of our employees will be higher” in wages and hourly wages, but for now the reduction will be 3% to 3.5%, he said. Some employees have already sued Tesla for the layoffs – more specifically in Nevada where two former Tesla employees claim that the automaker did not comply with the 60-day notice order under the Customer Adjustment and Retraining Act. Musk said he believed the lawsuit had no “basis”: Let’s not read too much into a precautionary measure that has no basis. Prior to the announcement of the dismissal, Musk also asked all dismissed employees to return to office. This was seen as a wave of layoffs on its own and many of the workers now being laid off are mostly part-time workers. Some who have been hired as remote workers and do not even live anywhere near Tesla offices are offered to relocate, but if that is not possible, they are allowed to leave. Tesla had about 100,000 employees worldwide at the end of last year. So 3% to 3.5% would be about 3,000 to 3,500 employees. FTC: We use affiliate links that automatically generate revenue. More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
