Tesla to lay off nearly 2,700 employees at Gigafactory Texas: notice

AUSTIN, Texas - Tesla will be laying off nearly 2,700 employees at its Gigafactory Texas.

The information comes from a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice, which was sent to the Texas Workforce Commission and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. 

Starting June 14, 2,688 employees will be laid off

The notice on Monday was issued under the WARN Act, a U.S. labor law that requires companies with 100 or more employees to notify 60 days ahead of planned closings or mass layoffs.

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The notice comes after employees reported being notified of the layoffs via overnight emails and a top Tesla executive announced his resignation on X, formerly Twitter.

"They gave me an entire three-paragraph condolence letter about me being laid off. They gave me a PDF about WARN, and I looked into it. They were supposed to warn me about unemployment. That WARN Act is a U.S. labor law that requires companies with 100 or more employees to notify 60 days ahead of planned closings or a mass layoff," says Bradley Olson, who was laid off.

Employees who spoke with FOX 7 Austin said they were sent an email notifying them about the layoffs around 3 a.m. April 15 and some even showed up to work that morning only to discover their badges no longer worked.

"Just out of the blue, they laid me off," says Olson.

Employees were told in the email that their last working day was Sunday, April 14, but that their official employment termination would occur as early as June 14. 

"At 2 a.m., which is the middle of the day for me, because I was on the overnight shift, I just looked at my phone and my Microsoft Teams logged me out. I was like ‘oh ok.’ I probably just need to reset my password, but then I tried, and it said my account was blocked," says Olson.

According to the email sent to the employees, the layoffs were a result of cost reductions and increasing productivity.

"This is ridiculous, the bomb that they just dropped on me and, like who knows how many other people, this is sad, a heads-up would have been nice," said Olson.

Tesla also recently recalled nearly 3,900 Cybertrucks built between Nov. 13, 2023, and April 4 due to an issue with the truck's accelerator. 

Investigators determined workers were using soap to help slip a foot pad onto the vehicle's accelerator arm, which can cause the pad to slip off when pressed and the pedal to get stuck in the interior trim.

NHTSA was told as of April 17, Cybertrucks in production were equipped with a new accelerator pedal component.

Just before the recall came out, laid-off Tesla employees were notified their severance packages had to be adjusted. Some payments were too low, according to an email sent out by Elon Musk.

"I'm already trying to look for plans, sign up for unemployment and all of that stuff, but this is the longest I have ever been in a job and in Texas, especially Austin, it is hard to find a job," says Olson.