- Tesla sent some laid-off employees a new severance offer that included additional pay and health insurance.
- The initial severance offer included two months’ salary and health insurance coverage, two workers said.
- Elon Musk has said he plans to cut more than 10% of Tesla’s workforce.
Some laid-off Tesla workers received new severance package offers Thursday evening that included more money and longer benefits coverage.
It continues a tumultuous week for Tesla workers, some of whom didn’t receive the layoff email until they went to work Monday and only realized they were out of a job after a badge scan by the security. Others told Business Insider they hadn’t received any information about severance packages in the 48 hours Tesla said it expected it.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared to acknowledge that the company initially sent faulty severance packages. On Wednesday, Musk sent a company-wide email to current Tesla employees saying that “some severance packages are incorrectly low” and that the company was working to correct the error.
Unlike the early departure offers that were sent to some workers Tuesday evening, the new compensation appears to vary from employee to employee.
Two workers who initially received a severance offer of two months’ pay and two months of health insurance coverage were informed Wednesday that their separation agreement had been canceled by Tesla and that an updated agreement would follow, workers told BI. Within hours, workers received layoff offers with slightly higher pay, these workers said.
One worker reported getting an extra month of COBRA health insurance coverage and an extra few thousand dollars put toward his severance package. Another worker said he was offered three months of severance and three months of paid COBRA coverage. Both workers were informed that they would no longer be employed by Tesla as of April 19.
Meanwhile, a third worker was told in his initial compensation offer sent on Wednesday evening that he would be employed until June 14, in line with Notice of adaptation and retraining of workers Act, according to the document consulted by BI. The law requires that companies employing more than 100 workers must give 60 days’ notice before a large-scale layoff. In addition to the 60-day notice period, the employee was informed that he would receive two months of severance pay and two months of COBRA coverage that would be paid after his employment ended in June.
Sixty days’ pay is the minimum that companies with more than 100 employees must give laid-off workers if there is no 60 days’ notice before mass job cuts, according to the Notice of adaptation and retraining of workers Act. If an employer terminates an employee but allows them to maintain their employment status for 60 days, the employer may also meet the WARN notice period.
The fired employees are part of a massive layoff at Tesla. Musk told staff that the electric car maker eliminating more than 10% of its workforce Sunday evening, according to an internal memo consulted by BI.
A Tesla spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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