Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. broke the law when the company asked employees at a Florida office not to complain to supervisors about pay or discuss things like hiring, a US Labor Department director claimed in a filing.
The complaint, dated Sept. 2 and signed by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Tampa, alleges Tesla TSLA, +1.12% late last year and early this year, told employees in an Orlando office , they should “not discuss it”. pay or other employees hired with others, telling them “not to complain to senior managers about their pay or other terms of employment.”
Bloomberg reported the news earlier in the day after receiving the filing via Freedom of Information Act motion. Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
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Kayla Blado, a Labor Department official, said in an email that a hearing on the matter was scheduled for Feb. 7 in Tampa. She said that a complaint is not a board decision. Rather, it indicated that a regional bureau has found the charges well founded and will pursue the charges before an administrative judge if the parties fail to reach an agreement.
Tesla has had disputes with the Labor Department in the past. The board last year ordered the company to bring back an employee it fired in 2017 and ordered Chief Executive Elon Musk to delete a tweet advising against forming a union.
Earlier this year, a federal judge reduced a jury’s $137 million in damages in a racial discrimination case against Tesla to $15 million.
Shares of Tesla closed down 1.1% on Friday. The stock had its worst year ever this year as Wall Street grew concerned over Musk’s concerns over social media platform Twitter, which he bought in October. Shares fell 65% for the year, while the S&P 500 index SPX fell -0.25%, down 19.4%.
What’s more, Tesla isn’t alone — 20 (and a half) other big stocks had their worst year on record