Musk sees recession: Tesla is cutting thousands of jobs

Musk saw recession
Tesla is cutting thousands of jobs

06/21/2022, 12:15 pm

Electric car maker Tesla is having to cut staff due to global economic growth. This has been announced personally by the company’s boss Musk. Above all, the tech billionaire wants to stamp out administration, but also to expand production.

Electric car maker Tesla will cut its jobs by 3 to 3.5 percent in the coming months. Company boss Elon Musk has clarified this after conflicting reports. Nearly every tenth of work among office workers must be eliminated, while the number of factory workers will increase in the long run. At the beginning of the year, the company had about 100,000 employees. In a video interview at the Qatar Economic Forum conference, Musk said Tesla sometimes created employee jobs too quickly.

In March, Tesla opened its first European plant in Grunheide, Brandenburg. It is not yet clear whether there will be job cuts there as well. The IG Metal trade union only reported over the weekend that the workforce in Grunheide was becoming dissatisfied with very low and unequal pay. This is the reason why the recruitment of new employees is not happening as fast as planned. Meanwhile, according to IG Metal, the plant management has already started offering higher salaries for new employees than in previous businesses.

Tech billionaire Musk reiterated that he expects a recession in the US in the near future. Over the past few weeks, a leaked e-mail report from Musk initially gave the impression that he wanted to cut the entire Tesla workforce by ten percent, citing a weak economy.

The job cuts that have apparently already begun in the United States are already causing trouble. In Texas, Tesla is being raised on suspicion of mass layoffs without notice. Two former workers said they were summarily fired at the Sparks Gigafactory in June, the lawsuit says. According to this, Tesla laid off more than 500 employees on the road this month. According to US labor law, a notice period of 60 days is required for such mass layoffs. “Tesla merely notified employees that their termination would be effective immediately,” the lawsuit reads. The dismissed employees are suing for class action. Tesla could not immediately be contacted for comment. Ex-employees are demanding 60 days salary and benefits. Plaintiffs attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan said Tesla is offering some workers weekly severance packages. that’s not enough.

Musk’s political beliefs were also a topic in the video interview. He recently announced that he would vote Republican in the future as President Joe Biden’s Democrats became a “party of division and hatred.” Asked if he would also support former President Donald Trump if he ran for the White House again in 2024, Musk simply said: “I haven’t made up my mind about this election yet. ” He previously indicated that he might consider backing the similarly conservative Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in running for office.