The electric vehicle company Tesla, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is reportedly being sued for favouring H1-B visa holders over Americans for employment in the company. According to the lawsuit, Tesla hires H1-B visa holders so it can pay them less.
A class action has been filed in San Francisco federal court stating that Tesla has violated federal civil rights law through its “systematic preference” to hire visa holders at the same time firing US citizens at a disproportionate rate compared to the visa holders, news agency Reuters reported.
The lawsuit was brought by a software engineer named Scott Taub and a human resource specialist, Sofia Brander, who said that Tesla refused to hire them after realising that they would not need sponsorship for employment at the company (a sign that they are US citizens).
The complainant has accused Tesla of being dependent on the H1-B visa holders for skilled workers, citing the 2024 hiring of an estimated 1,355 visa holders. At the same time, they say that the company laid off more than 6,000 workers domestically, ‘a vast majority’ of which were believed to be US citizens. Tesla has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
Complainant Scott Taub said that he was dissuaded from seeking a job at the company after being told that it was for ‘H1-B visa only’, after which he was not invited for a second job. Meanwhile, Brender said that Tesla wouldn’t interview her for the two jobs even though she has been a contract employee.
The complainant said that despite H1-B visa holders only covering a fraction of the US labour market, “Tesla prefers to hire these candidates over U.S. citizens, as it can pay visa-dependent employees less than American employees performing the same work, a practice in the industry known as ‘wage theft,'” the complaint said further.
The complaint also quoted Elon Musk’s X post on December 27, 2024, which said that Tesla and other companies that are making the US stronger because of the H1B visa. Musk, who is a naturalised US citizen born and raised in South Africa and has held an H1B visa, also said that it is the reason he is in America, along with other people who built SpaceX, X and Tesla.
Despite the lawsuit being filed,it remains unclear how the plaintiffs plan to show Tesla’s alleged systemic discrimination in hirings and firings. The lawsuit has sought damages for all American citizens who applied for jobs in the company and were not hired, or were working there and were fired.
H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialised occupations. People in America have been critical of the H1-B visa, claiming that the workers from other countries deprive American workers of their jobs.
