Tesla could be fined a total of $38,000 after an employee sustained serious injuries at its Fremont factory earlier this year while working on a Model Y.
Documents obtained by Bloomberg from a California Public Records Act request reveal that Tesla had failed to ensure that power was cut to a conveyor belt as workers performed quality inspections. In April, a female worker got stuck in the Model Y after its door hit a fixed vertical gate at the factory. The documents do not specify the injuries that the woman sustained other than describing them as “serious.”
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has cited Tesla for four safety violations. It has proposed fining it $18,000 for the violation as well as $18,000 for failing to maintain an effective injury and illness prevention program and two $1,000 fines for “general” violations at the Californian factory.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla is contesting the citations and fines. The regulator inspected the Fremont site between April and October and noted that it had failed to keep the factory floor free from obstructions that could cause workers to trip. It is reported that Tesla had also failed to create written procedures to control “hazardous energy” during the cleaning, servicing, repairing, setting up, and adjusting of certain machinery.
Read: Tesla Expanding Giga Shanghai To Get Ready For $25,000 Model 2
This is far from the first time that the Fremont factory has caught the attention of the authorities for all the wrong reasons. Last year, Californian’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing asserted that the site was home to “rampant racism” and alleged that Tesla had turned a blind eye to years of complaints about racial slurs at the factory. Tesla denied the claims. In September this year, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a separate lawsuit against Tesla asserting that it has tolerated severe harassment of Black employees at the factory.
