Tesla has faced allegations of firing employees in retaliation for a union push at its Gigafactory in New York. However, the company has denied these allegations in statement, stating that the terminations were part of its regular performance review cycle that takes place every six months globally.
The company clarified that the most recent performance review cycle was from July to December 2022, and managers across the company received a communication regarding the review schedule on December 13th, 2022. The communication noted that exits for low performers would start the week of February 12, 2023.
According to Tesla, approximately 4% of the employees on the Autopilot labeling team in Buffalo were let go as a result of this performance review cycle. The employees that were terminated received prior feedback on their poor performance from their managers, but despite the feedback, they did not demonstrate sufficient improvement.
Tesla stated that the impacted employees were identified on February 3, 2023, well before the union campaign was announced. The company also became aware of organizing activities approximately 10 days later and learned in hindsight that only one out of the 27 impacted employees officially identified as part of the union campaign.
The labeling team in Buffalo has been growing over the last several months, with an average rate of around 10 employees a week. Currently, the department’s employee base has grown 54%, from 437 employees to 675 employees.
