Elon Musk-led companies continue to cut costs, most recently by slashing the quarterly performance bonuses of frontline workers at Tesla Inc’s TSLA Shanghai Gigafactory, according to Reuters.
The news upset employees at Tesla’s largest manufacturing facility, spurring some to take to social media over the weekend to call out Musk and his mother Maye Musk for what they feel is unfair treatment, according to the outlet.
The billionaire's mother has developed a following in China and recently paid a visit to the China-based plant to promote her book.
The backlash comes after news four vendors contracted by Twitter are suing the social media company for unpaid bills. Musk has been on a rampage to cut costs at Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion in October of last year, firing hundreds of employees and closing down offices.
Unlike Twitter workers, Tesla employees haven’t been treated with the same disdain until now, although Musk insinuated on Twitter he wasn’t aware of the cuts to bonuses until this weekend and said he was “looking into it.”
Tesla has chosen to focus instead on slashing the prices of many of its EV models to increase demand.
The Cuts To Employee Bonuses
Some employees claim their bonuses for the quarter were reduced by 2,000 yuan ($291.19), according to the publication. The employees believe the cuts are due to an incident that occurred at the factory on Feb. 4, which results in the death of one employee.
@AFeiywu, took to Twitter to write a post directed at Musk and Tesla’s Asia unit to bring attention to the cuts: "Please pay attention to the performance (bonus) of frontline workers at Tesla's Shanghai factory being arbitrarily deducted," the person said, according to Reuters, although that tweet now appears to have been deleted.
Employees at the factory believe the cuts to their performance bonuses are unfair and Aidan Chau, a researcher at China Labor Bulletin in Hong Kong, agrees. "Deducting the performance bonus, which should be related to workers' output and has nothing to do with work safety, is even more unfair," he said.
Photo: j-No on flickr, Shutterstock and Tesla
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