A U.S. appeals court docket on Friday stated Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk violated federal labor regulation by tweeting that workers of the electrical car maker would lose inventory choices in the event that they joined a union.
The New Orleans-based fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a call by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board that stated the 2018 tweet amounted to an illegal risk that would discourage unionizing and ordered Musk to delete it.
Amid an organizing marketing campaign at Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant by the United Auto Workers union, Musk tweeted: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union … But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”
Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Musk’s prolific use of Twitter has landed him in authorized hassle earlier than. Tesla in February defeated a lawsuit from traders over one other Musk tweet from 2018 saying funding was secured to take the corporate personal, and a British cave explorer unsuccessfully sued Musk for calling him a “pedo guy” on Twitter.
Musk bought Twitter final 12 months for $44 billion.
In Friday’s case, Tesla had argued that the tweet about unionizing was not a risk and merely mirrored the truth that union staff at different auto corporations didn’t obtain inventory choices.
But a three-judge panel of the fifth Circuit disagreed.
“Substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s conclusion that the tweet is an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization,” the fifth Circuit panel wrote.
The labor board in a separate case final 12 months stated Tesla violated labor regulation by prohibiting staff on the Fremont plant from sporting shirts supporting the union marketing campaign. The firm is interesting that call.
Source: www.anews.com.tr