California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has opened an investigation into Tesla after a report came out detailing a pattern of workplace hazards at the company’s factory in Fremont, Bloomberg reported.
According to Bloomberg, an OSHA spokesperson said the agency “takes seriously reports of workplace hazards and allegations of employers’ underreporting recordable work-related injuries and illnesses” and “currently has an open inspection at Tesla.”
Reveal.org published a report this week in which it carried out its own investigations as well as talked to Tesla’s former safety experts about the electric automobile company’s failure to report some of its more serious injuries.
Another thing the Reveal investigation found – missing from the company’s factory workspace is the color yellow – traditionally use as a mark of caution in hazardous situations. The reason: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a fan of the hue.
As Tesla races to produce the Model 3 to keep up with production promises, some are questioning whether it is prioritizing speed over caution.
The report also called out Tesla for not accurately tracking injuries or undercounting injuries to make their record look better than it actually is.
Tesla dismissed Reveal’s report by calling it an “extremist organization” that was running a “disinformation campaign” against the company.
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“In our view, what they portray as investigative journalism is in fact an ideologically motivated attack by an extremist organization working directly with union supporters to create a calculated disinformation campaign against Tesla,” Tesla said in a blog post.
"Our goal is to be the safest factory on Earth. Last year, despite going through extreme challenges building an entirely new Model 3 production system, we nonetheless reduced our injury rate by 25%. Through a lot of hard work, our injury rate – which we diligently track, record, and update – is half what it was in the final years GM and Toyota owned and ran the same Fremont factory before it closed and Tesla took it over.
