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New York (CNN) - Tesla violated labor laws by threatening employees when they tried to unionize, a California labor judge ruled Friday night.
The company must now hold a meeting to inform workers about their rights, and CEO Elon Musk must attend.
Administrative law judge Amita Baman Tracy ruled Friday that Tesla had violated the National Labor Relations Act several times in 2017 and 2018.
The violations included a tweet from Elon Musk in May 2018 that said: “Nothing prevents the Tesla team in our car plant from voting for the union. They could do it tomorrow if they wanted to. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?
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The judge said the tweet amounted to "threatening employees" that they would lose their stock options if they voted to unionize.
"Musk's tweet can only be read by a reasonable employee to indicate that if employees vote to unionize they would abandon stock options," Tracy wrote. "Musk threatened to take away a benefit that employees enjoyed accordingly by voting to unionize."
The ruling also determined that Tesla violated labor laws by prohibiting employees from distributing leaflets in their free hours in employee parking in Fremont, California; tell employees that it was useless to vote for the union; and question employees about their union activities.
Tracy ruled that Tesla needs to “cease and desist” from that behavior and reinstate and fully compensate an employee who had been illegally fired for being involved in union activities. The automaker must also inform workers at a meeting that Tesla violated the National Labor Relations Act several times.
The ruling was issued in response to complaints of unfair labor practices filed by the United Auto Workers (UAW), including one in 2017 that accused the company of firing union supporters.
UAW did not comment immediately on the ruling. He said Tesla workers have not yet voted on unionization.
Tesla did not comment immediately on Saturday. It is not clear if the company will appeal.
In 2017, Tesla said that no employee had been punished for supporting a union, in response to a complaint from UAW.
In 2018, Tesla defended Musk's tweet to CNN Business. “Elon's tweet was simply a recognition of the fact that, unlike Tesla, we don't know a single car manufacturer represented by the UAW that offers stock options or restricted stock units to its production employees, and the organizers UAW have consistently rejected the value of Tesla as part of our compensation package, ”said a spokesman.
UAW said Saturday that its contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had profit sharing plans.
Elon Musk is in the midst of numerous legal battles claiming that he is taking more care of his own interests than those of Tesla shareholders. Tesla spokespersons and lawyers say the lawsuits have no merit and Tesla will vigorously dispute them.
Chris Isidore of CNN Business contributed to this report.
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