The National Labor Relations Council on Thursday ordered Tesla Inc. to reinstate an employee he fired in 2017 and said CEO Elon Musk must remove a three-year-old tweet urging against unionization.
NLRB in Washington, DC, agreed to a 2019 ruling by a California NLRB judge that found the electric car maker violated labor laws related to unionization efforts at its plant in Fremont, California.
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he must offer to return Richard Ortiz to his former position as production associate within 14 days, as well as return his salaries and benefits. The company must also compensate him for any tax consequences resulting, according to the decision.
Tesla said in the files that Ortiz was fired because he lied during an investigation in a Facebook post about the company’s union activity.
Margo Feinberg, a lawyer with Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, who was detained by United Auto Workers on behalf of Ortiz, told MarketWatch on Thursday that, as far as she knows, Ortiz wanted to return to work at Tesla.
The decision in the Tesla case, first reported by Bloomberg News, comes as the Law Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) or HR 482, was adopted by the Chamber earlier this month. The legislation – which would provide new protections for workers when trying to unionize and sanction companies that violate workers’ rights – is expected to be passed by the Senate.
See: The PRO Act, called “the most important labor law of many generations,” adopts House
“If it were OSHA, there would be fines,” Feinberg said. “The NLRB decision is not enough, but it is an important message.”
“Finally, we need reform,” she added, saying the PRO law would provide for compensation and compensation in a case like this.
The UAW echoed that sentiment.
“As we celebrate justice in today’s ruling, it still highlights substantial flaws in U.S. labor law,” UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a statement. “Here is a company that has clearly broken the law and yet three years have passed before these workers reach a minimum of justice.”
As for the Musk tweet that needs to be removed, the NLRB found it threatening. In 2018, as the UAW continued to try to organize Tesla employees, the Tesla CEO posted on Twitter: “Nothing would stop the Tesla team at our car factory from voting. They could do that, if they wanted to. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is twice as good as when the factory was in the UAW and everyone was already receiving medical care. ”
Tesla must also delete a warning from the file of another employee who was disciplined when he interacted with Ortiz about union-related work, the NLRB said in its ruling on Thursday. In addition, the company was ordered to repeal the rules prohibiting employees from distributing union literature during working hours and wearing union insignia and threatening, disciplining or terminating an employee due to union activity. In addition, Tesla must post a notice at its plant that it has been found to have violated labor law.
The company must also delete the language from a confidentiality agreement that requires employees to sign that they cannot speak to the media, as labor law “protects employees when talking to the media about working conditions, employment conflicts. employment or other conditions and conditions of employment “
The company, which allegedly dissolved the public relations team, did not send a request for comment.