A Tesla engineer attacked by a malfunctioning robot in the company’s Gigafactory in Texas, USA, sparked safety concerns and allegations of underreported injuries and a worker's death, raising questions about Tesla’s compliance with agreements and safety practices in the state.
Two witnesses reportedly watched in horror as their fellow staff member was physically assaulted by a machine designed to grab and move freshly cast aluminum car parts.
The robot in question had reportedly pinned the working man, who was then programming software for two disabled Tesla bionic machines in close proximity, before burrowing its metal claws into the employee's back and arm, causing a “trail of blood” along the factory surface.
A Tesla engineer attacked by a robot at the company factory in Texas raised questions about safety practices
Image credits: Tesla
A 2021 injury report filed to Travis County, in Austin, Texas, as well as to federal regulators, revealed that the incident subsequently left the traumatized engineer with an “open wound” on his left hand.
Tesla has been obliged to submit the report to authorities by law to maintain its lucrative tax breaks in Texas.
Image credits: Craig Ardeley/Pexels
Moreover, the report claimed that the engineer did not require time off of work upon being attacked by the robot, the Daily Mail reported.
Nevertheless, Hannah Alexander, an attorney who represents Tesla's Giga Texas contract workers, has said that she believed, based on her conversations with workers there, that the number of injuries suffered at the factory is going underreported, the British publication stated.
The attorney alleged that such underreporting even included the September 28, 2021 death of a construction worker, who had been contracted to help build the factory itself.
Hannah said: “My advice would be to read that report with a grain of salt.
“We've had multiple workers who were injured, and one worker who died, whose injuries or death are not in these reports that Tesla is supposed to be accurately completing and submitting to the county in order to get tax incentives.”
A 2021 injury report revealed that the incident left the traumatized engineer with an “open wound” on his left hand
Image credits: Tesla
The worker who died was a contractor named Antelmo Ramírez. He passed away from a heat stroke while helping build Tesla's over 2,000-acre-long Giga Texas factory, according to a report from the Travis County medical examiner.
Last year, Workers Defense Project, which Hannah represents, reportedly filed a complaint on behalf of workers at Giga Texas with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), alleging Tesla's contractors and subcontractors gave some hires false safety certificates, as per the Daily Mail.
Hannah told local NBC affiliate KXAN: “Workers report that when they needed training, they were simply sent PDF files or images of certificates through text or WhatsApp in a matter of days.
“There's no conceivable way workers could have even taken the training required.”
Three years ago, California OSHA investigators had already found that Tesla had left out 36 injuries in its required government filings in 2018 alone, confirming a prior report by the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal team, which unveiled that the company had misclassified a number of on-the-job accidents and injuries as “personal medical” cases to evade California regulators.
As the bleeding engineer attempted to wrestle free from the robot, another worker hit an emergency “stop” button, two eyewitnesses described
Image credits: Lenny Kuhne/Unsplash
Tesla had initially stated that Reveal's claims were “completely false”, and accused the group of secretly collaborating with laborers who were then attempting to unionize Tesla's California plant.
However, a copy of Tesla's 2021 Annual Compliance Report for Giga Texas does mention the engineer's bloody robot attack, notwithstanding one important detail.
The scant November 10, 2021, entry reportedly described how a “laceration, cut, open wound” was inflicted on an “engineer” for which the “cause object” was a “robot”, the Daily Mail reported.
According to Tesla, the engineer's wounds, which were inflicted on his left hand, reportedly required “zero” days off from work for recovery.
Two eyewitnesses to the event told reporters for The Information that as the bleeding Tesla engineer attempted to wrestle free from the assembly robot's grasp, another worker hit an emergency “stop” button to end the attack.
An attorney representing Tesla's Giga Texas contract workers believed there were many injuries suffered at the factory going underreported
Image credits: Tesla
Once free, the engineer reportedly fell “a couple of feet down a chute designed to collect scrap aluminum, leaving a trail of blood behind him”.
Reports suggest that Tesla's Giga Texas plant surpasses most of the auto industry both in total accidents and accidents serious enough to require time off, the Daily Mail reported.
A ratio of nearly one out of every 21 workers at Tesla's Giga Texas factory was injured on the job in 2022, according to The Information, compared to an industry median rate of one in every 30 workers.
For more serious on-the-job injuries, that ratio came out to roughly one in every 26 workers at Tesla's Texas factory, as per 2022 filing data on injuries that led to either missed days of work or transfers to other job duties.
A ratio of nearly one out of every 21 workers at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory was injured on the job in 2022, according to The Information
Image credits: Tesla
According to sources who spoke to The Information, the rapid two-year construction of the Giga Texas facility increased poor safety measures and increased injuries.
Additionally, Tesla's OSHA reports included sprains, cuts, and fractures from workers getting caught on machines, as well as sicknesses stemming from contact with toxins like ammonia.
One production associate was reportedly unable to work for 127 days after their ankle was caught by a moving cart in August 2022.
Thereupon, a material handler was struck in the head by a metal object, leaving an injury that took 85 days to recover from, according to OSHA's records.
Some people said they "saw that one coming"
