Tesla layoffs draw suit claiming not enough warning for workers

Tesla expected to post lower profit margin amid doubts on growth, product strategy

The former employees of Tesla have sued the electric carmaker for not providing a required notice period of 60 days before laying them off, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Tesla's boss Elon Musk had said, in an email, last week that there were a lot of duplication of roles in various company positions and there is a need to reduce costs. According to the report, the dismissals could go to as high as 14,000 across the company.

Soon after the email by Musk, around 10 percent of the employees were laid off as part of the global retrenchment. Another Bloomberg report said that the newly-formed marketing team of the company, which had 40 employees in the US, was also fired as part of the global layoffs. Many in the US carmakers design studio were also given the pink slips.

The complaint claimed that this move violated California's laws as the company failed to provide a mandatory notice period of 60 days. The suit, filed in a court in San Jose, California, said the global carmaker “acted intentionally and with deliberate indifference and conscious disregard to the rights of its employees”.

The carmaker is not new to such suits. In 2022, the company had faced a similar case when it had fired over 500 employees at its factory new Reno in Nevada. At that time, the company won an order which allowed the case to go into arbitration, according to the report.