Tesla workers in Shanghai appeal to Elon Musk over bonus cuts

Just days ahead of its first-quarter results, trouble seems to be brewing for Elon Musk-owned car makerTesla in China.

Several workers at the Tesla's Shanghai factory are taking to social media to appeal to Elon Musk after they were informed about plans to cut their performance bonuses, a Reuters report has said.

On Chinese internet platform Baidu, several workers questioned whether the plan to cut their performance bonuses was linked to a fatal accident in the factory in February this year.

Several online posts claimed workers at the Shanghai plant were being unfairly punished for the accident in which one worker died, with some workers alleging that their quarterly bonuses were cut by around 2,000 yuan.

Some workers also logged on to Twitter, owned by Musk but banned in China, to express their grievances. "Please pay attention to the performance (bonus) of frontline workers at Tesla's Shanghai factory being arbitrarily deducted," Reuters quoted a person with the handle @AFeiywu on Twitter.

According to media reports, the online posts are a rare outburst of discontent at Tesla's Shanghai plant. Last year, Musk had praised the factory workersfor running theoperationsduring Shanghai's two-month Covid-19 lockdown.

The Shanghai factory, which began operations in late 2019, is the Tesla’s largest manufacturing hub. The plant employs some 20,000 workers and accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global output in 2022. China is Tesla’s second-largest market after the United States by volume.