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Tesla says employees who don't return to work could lose unemployment benefits

Tesla HR told employees if they refuse to return to work at the company's reopened plants, they risk losing unemployment benefits. Yahoo Finance's On The Move panel discusses.

Video Transcript

- One of the other challenges for workers who are being able-- who are being asked to go back now as things reopen is whether they want to and whether they're going to get unemployment payments, right, if they then choose not to go back. Tesla sent out, its HR head sent out an email saying, as we reopen here, if you choose not to come back, this is something that might happen. You might not get your unemployment insurance. That, though, depends not on Tesla, but actually on the county or the state regulators. So it's an interesting challenge now that not just Tesla, but other companies and other employees are going to have to grapple with, Adam, if they-- if they don't necessarily feel safe going back.

- It is a tough place to be, and Julie-- and the question I had, and it's not a pure example, but when you look at what Elon Musk did in his threats to the state of California, what I was thinking was how is that different, defying, you know, the local government authorities, how is that different than the men and women who are standing in front of businesses, say in Texas, with guns that are opening up, defying the authorities there? Now, there's a balance that companies have to make, which is we've got to put people back to work, how do we do that safely. And what Tesla seems to be doing is making people choose either your livelihood or your life. And what a horrible place to be.

- Yeah, Adam, I think it's more that Elon Musk is a billionaire and controls a massive business in California, in the county. And that's really the difference between him and someone who would be protesting, albeit armed-- maybe the gun is the big difference there-- but really, I think it's the fact that he controls so much capital in California and they want so desperately for him to remain there that they wouldn't go and raid the factory when the order was there for them to not work. And I think, you know, it kind of speaks to the state of Elon Musk's mind that he would say come and arrest me, come, you know, take me down. And by the way, if you are required to come to work, even though the state is under a state of emergency, you know, you don't come in, you may lose your benefits.

- And Dan, I think that's an excellent point. If you think about it, Fremont, that Fremont factory employs at least 10,000 workers. And we know how much the manufacturing job loss has really affected our country, right? That was Trump's whole stomping ground, and that's how he got elected president, in many ways. And when you think about Elon Musk's stance on this, the employees are between a rock and a hard place. There literally is no right answer, because let's think about it.

Let's say that employees decide to take unpaid leave, they have enough savings, they're not going to work. Who do you think will be the first to get furloughed? Who do you think will be the first to get laid off and then eventually fired? There is no way that a manufacturing job, in particular, you'd be able to say, hey, I'm going to take two weeks off because I feel unsafe that my mom might get COVID if I'm exposed in this sort of an environment.

So I think this is really, to be honest, a bit crude of Tesla's, you know, HR and their stance, of course a lot of that coming from Musk's own personal ideology here. But as Julie earlier pointed out, this has been happening throughout this entire pandemic. Look at coffee shops. Look at baristas, who are pleading for their employers not to reopen, that they're not essential, that people do not need coffee right now, that they can make coffee at home. So I think it's really an unfortunate situation where these employees, they need money, but they don't want to risk their lives. And how do you reconcile those two?

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