Tesla Inc. told furloughed employees on Friday that they will remain out of work for at least another week, postponing a plan to resume normal operations on May 4 at its California assembly plant, according to an internal email.
“For furloughed employees, unless you are contacted by your manager about a start date, you will remain on furlough until further notice, at least for another week,” the company’s in-house counsel Valerie Capers Workman said in the email, which was sent to employees and seen by Reuters.
Tesla suspended production at its Fremont, Calif., plant on March 24.
The extension comes days after health officials from San Francisco County, along with five other Bay Area counties, said they would revise shelter-in-place orders that are set to expire on Sunday.
The new orders will keep the restrictions in place and extend them through May, with limited easing for a small number of low-risk activities.
The company was not immediately available to a Reuters’ request for comment.
The electric vehicle maker last month furloughed all non-essential workers and implemented salary cuts during a shutdown of its U.S. production facilities because of the coronavirus outbreak.
On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called statewide shelter-in-place orders “fascist,” dropping multiple expletives during the company’s first-quarter earnings call and railing against what he called an infringement on individual freedoms.
Automotive News contributed to this report.
