Tesla shareholders have decided to make company CEO Elon Musk a billionaire — with board members arguing that despite being a PR trainwreck, the dirt-posting edgelord is somehow indispensable to the firm. However, it appears that if you’re just an ordinary Tesla employee – whose primary focus is doing your job (that is, as opposed to pandering to right-wing radicals, waving chainsaws around, or sending your sperm to random people) – the EV company considers you significantly more expendable.
Case in point: A former Tesla employee recently sued the company, claiming it terminated his position in violation of federal law. That former employee, Hans Khols, is deaf. According to a lawsuit published by The Independent, Kholes was hired through the company’s rigorous START internship, which was designed to convert successful applicants into full-time employees as equipment technicians. The lawsuit claims that his Tesla interviewer knew that Kholes was deaf when he was hired. However, the lawsuit claims that the casting department of the Gigafactory, where he was employed, was so hot that it damaged his hearing aids. The lawsuit claims that when he asked to be transferred to a department where the atmosphere was not as heated (he says there were other suitable departments where he could more easily perform his role), his position was eliminated.
The casting department, where Kholes was employed, “Uses high-pressure die-casting machines to melt Aluminum ingots create an environment of excessive heat and moisture,” the suit states. The former employee says the heat of this industrial process caused his hearing aids to fail:
On starting work in the casting department, due to excessive heat and humidity Mr. Kohl’s electronic hearing aids have malfunctioned. Malfunction of his hearing aids prevented Mr. Kohls from hearing reliably Safety signals in that specific environment. It was an environmental disturbance related to the equipment Failure due to extreme conditions specific to the casting department, not inherent functionality Limitation on his ability to perform job duties.
The complaint also states that although Kholes explained during the interview process that he could work in a hot environment, he was not aware of how hot the Gigafactory would be:
Neither the application nor the interview revealed that the casting department Extreme heat and humidity conditions will exceed standard industrial heating levels. casting The department uses a high-pressure die-casting operation that melts the aluminum to almost 1,220°F. Mr Kohls would not have reasonably anticipated these particular circumstances His hearing aids remained defective until he experienced them firsthand.
The lawsuit also says there were other departments where it would have been easier to transfer him to another department:
Ability to withstand extreme heat typical of casting department-Generally, Casting Operation Equipment Technician is not an essential function of the position. This is evidenced by equipment technicians working successfully in many other departments GFTX with standard industrial temperature.
The complaint further states that Tesla failed in its “legal obligation” to transfer him to an appropriate department:
Instead of meeting their legal obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) In order to reassign Mr. Kohls to a vacant position, Tesla terminated his employment at only nine A few days after his accommodation request, he was bluntly told that he was being “medically isolated.”
When contacted for comment by Gizmodo, Khole’s attorney, Andrew Rosinski, told us:
The facts of this case are stark and disturbing. Tesla had a highly qualified employee who requested the most basic accommodation under the ADA, reassignment to a vacant position where he had already shown success. Instead of following the law, they fired him within nine days and told him he was being ‘medically isolated.’
Hans Kohls outperformed his peers in his training program at Tesla, successfully worked in multiple departments at the Gigafactory, and asked for nothing more than reassignment to a role where extreme heat wouldn’t damage his hearing aids. Tesla’s response? termination. The ADA exists to prevent this type of discrimination.
Gizmodo contacted Tesla for comment, and we will update this post when we hear back.
Earlier this year, Musk led the Trump administration’s DOGE effort, which sought to reduce the overall size of government. Musk claimed he wanted to make trillions of dollars out of the federal budget, but recent reports show that DOGE wasted billions of dollars and had no impact on the deficit. Musk left the government in May, shortly after a high-level administration official reportedly said he was “the most disturbing” person he had ever had to deal with and suggested he would need to undergo regular drug testing.