The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday ordered Tesla Inc. to reinstate an employee it laid off in 2017 and said Chief Executive Elon Musk should remove a three-year tweet calling against unionization.
The NLRB in Washington, DC, agreed to a 2019 decision by an NLRB judge in California, which concluded that the electric car manufacturer violated labor laws related to union efforts at its plant in Fremont, California.
Tesla TSLA,
You must offer to readmit Richard Ortiz to his former job as a production associate within 14 days, as well as return him to payment and benefits. The company must also indemnify you for any resulting tax consequences, according to the decision.
Tesla said in documents that Ortiz was fired for lying during an investigation on a Facebook post about union activity at the company.
Margo Feinberg, a lawyer for Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers who was hired 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, came when the Law to Protect the Right to Organize (PRO), or HR 482, was passed by the House earlier this month. The legislation – which would give workers new protections when seeking to unionize and penalize companies that violate workers’ rights – must be passed by the Senate.
To see: The PRO Law, called the ‘most important labor legislation in several generations’, is approved by the Chamber
“If it were OSHA, there would be fines,” said Feinberg. “The NLRB decision is not enough, but it is an important message.”
“Ultimately, we need reform,” she added, saying that the PRO Act would provide precautionary measures and damages in a case like this.
The UAW echoed that sentiment.
“While we celebrate justice in today’s decision, it highlights substantial flaws in US labor law,” UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a statement. “This is a company that has clearly broken the law, but there are still three years left for these workers to achieve a minimum of justice.”
As for the Musk tweet that should be removed, the NLRB considered it threatening. In 2018, while the UAW continued to try to organize Tesla employees, the Tesla CEO tweeted: “Nothing prevents the Tesla team in our car factory from voting for the union. You could do that tmrw if you wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2 times better than when the factory was UAW and everyone already receives medical assistance. “
Tesla must also delete a notice from another employee’s file that was punished when he interacted with Ortiz about union-related activities, the NLRB said in its decision Thursday. The company has also been forced to rescind rules that prohibit employees from distributing union-related literature outside working hours and wearing union badges, and from threatening, disciplining or firing an employee because of union activity. In addition, Tesla is expected to publish a notice at its plant stating that it has violated labor laws.
The company must also exclude language from a confidentiality agreement that asks employees to sign that they cannot speak to the media, because labor law “protects employees when they speak to the media about working conditions, labor disputes or other terms. and conditions of employment ”.
The company, which reportedly disbanded its public relations team, did not return a request for comment.