Tesla facing investigation by California officials over worker injuries

Tesla is a company that is used to making headlines, only lately, the headlines aren't the kind it would prefer to make. Case in point: the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) is launching an investigation into accusations that Tesla misrepresented serious injuries at its Fremont factory, according to Reuters.

The allegations were brought forward by Reveal, the publication by the Center for Investigative Reporting. Tesla, in a blog post, decried Reveal's report as, "an ideologically motivated attack by an extremist organization working directly with union supporters to create a calculated disinformation campaign against Tesla."

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Cal-OSHA's inspection began on Tuesday and was announced on Wednesday, just two days after Reveal's story was released, and which cited, among other things, a lack of appropriate yellow floor markings being responsible for potential crush injuries as well as the miscategorization of employee injuries and illnesses.

"The injury rate at our Fremont factory is half what it was in the final years of the UAW plant operated by GM/Toyota immediately before us, and we care deeply about the safety and well-being of our people and strive to do better every day," said a Tesla spokesperson, in a statement. "Cal-OSHA is required to investigate any claims that are made, regardless of whether they have merit or are baseless (as we believe these are), and we always provide our full cooperation. Last year, a Cal-OSHA investigation into our injury reporting and record-keeping was closed without any violations found and without any further action taken. In fact, unlike other automakers who in the past have been cited by OSHA for record-keeping violations, we have never in the entire history of our company received a violation for inaccurate or incomplete injury record-keeping."

This investigation comes soon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk's announcement via email that the Fremont plant would be moving to 24/7 production on the Model 3 in order to meet production goals.