Just a couple of days after Tesla was sued for not giving employees enough notice about job cuts, chief executive Elon Musk has detailed why the carmaker is slashing its workforce.
While recently speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum organized by Bloomberg, Musk stated that the car manufacturer is cutting 10 per cent of its salaried staff, accounting for a 3.5 per cent reduction in total headcount.
The world’s richest person added that Tesla was also pausing all hiring worldwide due to his concerns over a possible recession in the U.S, Reuters reports.
“It’s not a certainty, but it appears more likely than not,” Musk said at the forum.
Read More: Elon Musk Wants 10% Tesla Workforce Cull, Has “Super Bad Feeling” About Economy
Interestingly, Musk added that Tesla expects to increase the number of workers that it pays by the hour, rather than through fixed salaries.
This is the first time Musk has offered some details about Tesla’s job cuts since he warned employees of them earlier this month. At the time, he said Tesla would fire 10 per cent of its workforce because he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy. This revelation came just a couple of days after Musk said all Tesla employees must return to the office and can no longer work remotely. He said that employees must be present in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week and that those who didn’t return to the office would be assumed to have resigned.
It is understood that Musk made this proclamation despite knowing that Tesla’s facilities do not have enough parking spaces or desk spaces to house all of its employees.
Earlier this week, John Lynch and Daxton Hartsfield from Tesla’s battery factory near Reno, Nevada, sued Tesla, stating that the automaker didn’t comply with the 60-day notification requirement under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).
