The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday ordered Tesla Inc. the reinstatement of an employee he fired in 2017 and said chief executive Elon Musk had to remove a three-year tweet urging unionization.
The NLRB in Washington, DC, agreed to a 2019 ruling by an NLRB judge in California that found the electric car maker violated labor laws related to unionization efforts in the its plant in Fremont, California.
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he must offer to reimburse Richard Ortiz for his former job as production associate within 14 days, as well as return his pay and benefits. The company must also compensate it for the resulting tax consequences, according to the ruling.
Tesla said in the files that Ortiz was fired for lying during an investigation into a Facebook post about union activity in the company.
Margo Feinberg, a lawyer for Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann and Sommers, who were retained by United Auto Workers on Ortiz’s behalf, told MarketWatch Thursday that, as far as she knows, Ortiz had wanted to return to work at Tesla.
The decision in the Tesla case, first reported by Bloomberg News, comes as the Right to Organize Act (PRO) or HR 482, which was passed by the House earlier this month. The legislation – which would give new protections to workers when they seek to unionize and penalize companies that violate workers’ rights – is expected to be passed by the Senate.
See: The PRO law, called “the most important labor legislation of several generations,” adopts House
“If that were OSHA, there would be fines,” Feinberg said. “The NLRB ruling is not enough, but it is an important message.”
“Ultimately, we need reforms,” he added, saying the PRO Act would provide for precautionary measures and damages in a case like this.
The UAW echoed that sentiment.
“While we celebrate justice in today’s ruling, it nonetheless highlights substantial flaws in U.S. labor law,” UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a statement. “Here is a company that clearly broke the law and yet it has been three years before these workers get a minimum of justice.”
As for Musk’s tweet to be removed, the NLRB considered it threatening. In 2018, while the UAW continued to try to organize Tesla employees, the CEO of Tesla tweeted: “Nothing to stop the Tesla team at our car plant from voting for the union. They could do it tmrw if they wanted to. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2 times better than when the plant was UAW and everyone already had health care. “
Tesla must also remove a warning from the file of another employee who was disciplined when he interacted with Ortiz about union-related activity, the NLRB said in its resolution Thursday. In addition, the company was ordered to repeal the rules prohibiting employees from distributing union-related documentation during non-work hours and wearing union insignia, as well as the threat, discipline or the termination of an employee by union activity. In addition, Tesla must post a notice on its plant stating that it violated labor law.
The company must also suppress the language of a confidentiality agreement that requires employees to sign that they cannot speak to the media, because labor law “protects employees when they talk to the media about working conditions. , labor disputes or other terms and conditions of employment “.
The company, which reportedly dissolved its public relations team, has not returned any requests for comment.