Tesla Accused of Exploiting Cheap Labor to Make Its FactoriesA contractor allegedly took advantage of foreign workers to build Tesla's U.S. facilities.
ByJon Fingas•
This story originally appeared onEngadget
Tesla may pride itself on making the world a better place througheco-friendly electric cars, but it's not immune to ethical concerns.Mercury Newshasdiscoveredthat at least one of Tesla's contractors has been using sub-contracted, low-paid labor (as little as $5 per hour) from eastern Europe to work on the automaker's facilities.
The partner companies have avoided offering overtime pay and even compensation for injuries -- one man is suing his employers after he fell three stories while working on a Tesla paint plant in Fremont. The practices let those contractors finish crucial factory work at a fraction of the cost of using American labor, which could cost as much as $52 per hour for similar tasks.
Tesla initially downplayed the findings. In a statement, it maintained that its work agreements require contractors to "hire and pay their workers appropriately" while saying little about its own responsibility. However, CEO Elon Musk is very much the hands-on sort. Hetells他的Twitter的追随者,他刚刚学会了about this exploitation, and that he plans to "investigate and make it right." Don't be surprised if Tesla has better oversight of its contractors going forward.
To some extent, the problem rests in the U.S. visa system. While it's easy for officials to verify that temporary workers are going home at the end of their stints, it's difficult to make sure that workers are doing what their visa says they're doing -- let alone that they're being paid well. Tesla isn't alone among tech companiesfacing labor issues, and it certainly bears some responsibility in caring for its contracted workers, but it may need help from the government to minimize labor abuses.
Update:Tesla has written ablog postexplaining its views. It stresses that government regulators cleared it of wrongdoing, but it also vows to "take care" of underpaid and injured workers. The company doesn't want the "wrong thing to happen" just to save a few bucks, it says.
@margotrooseveltOnly heard about this today. Sounds like the wrong thing happened on many levels. Will investigate and make it right.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)May 16, 2016
