Tesla Shanghai Factory Workers Blast Musk For Bonus Cuts

Workers from Tesla's Shanghai factory are taking to social media to appeal to Elon Musk and the Chinese public after being informed over the weekend about plans to cut their performance bonuses, according to online posts and workers, Zhang Yan, Zhuzhu Cui and Brenda Goh reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Tesla workers claimed their performance bonus will be reduced by 2,000 yuan.

Several of the posts also criticized Tesla's handling of a fatal accident in the plant, its biggest worldwide, earlier this year and questioned whether the deductions were linked to it.

The situation marks a rare outburst of discontent at Tesla's Shanghai plant, its largest and most productive site, whose workers Musk praised last year for burning "the 3 a.m. oil" to keep operations running during the city's two-month COVID lockdown.

Tesla workers claimed their performance bonus will be reduced by 2,000 yuan. They said they are being punished by Musk for an accident that management has to be responsible for.

Posts began appearing on forums such as Baidu Tieba late last week. Some took to Twitter, owned by Musk and blocked in China, to tweet to the billionaire, his mother, Maye Musk, and Tesla's accounts.

"Please pay attention to the performance (bonus) of frontline workers at Tesla's Shanghai factory being arbitrarily deducted," said a person with the handle @AFeiywu on Twitter in a tweet directed at Elon Musk and Tesla's Asia unit.

Two workers at the plant, where Tesla employs around 20,000, told Reuters they were informed by their supervisors over the weekend about a cut to their quarterly bonus payout, which is linked to the factory's performance.

According to a report published by the local Pudong government on April 12, there was a mechanical accident in the welding workshop at Tesla's Shanghai plant on Feb. 4 that killed one worker.

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