On Monday, two employees who worked in Tesla’s Sparks, Nevada Gigafactory have accused the company of failing to provide workers it laid off with the requisite notice. The Western District of Texas complaint alleges that under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN Act), Tesla was required to, but did not, give workers 60 days advance written notice of a mass layoff.
According to the lawsuit, Tesla employs thousands of people around the country. It says that in May or June, Tesla initiated a layoff of thousands of employees at its facilities across the country. Reportedly, and according to a multitude of media reports, Elon Musk told Tesla’s top executives that Tesla needed to eliminate 10% of its workforce in early June.
In mid-June, the two plaintiffs were told that they were being terminated, effective immediately. The complaint says that the plaintiffs’ experience was typical of other employees nationwide, including more than 500 at the Gigafactory 2 plant in Sparks, Nevada. The plaintiffs’ abrupt termination resulted in a “devastating economic impact,” the complaint says.
The two named plaintiffs seek to represent a nationwide class of Tesla employees who were not given a minimum of 60 days written notice of termination and whose employment was terminated as a result of a “mass layoff” or “plant closing,” as defined by the WARN Act, beginning in approximately May or June of 2022.
As relief, the plaintiffs seek their respective compensation and benefits for 60 days, as provided by the federal worker protection law. The employees are represented by Herrmann Law PLLC and Lichten & Liss-Riordan P.C.
