Tesla Korea's Layoffs and Other Developments

TapTechNews May 20th. According to The Korea Central Daily News, Tesla Korea recently sent an email to all its employees, asking them to voluntarily resign, which is one of the most common forms of layoffs in South Korea.

According to the data of the Financial Supervisory Service, Tesla Korea was established in December 2015 and currently has about 480 employees.

After Tesla's CEO Musk announced the dissolution of the company's supercharging station department, a charging team in South Korea has been dissolved. Tesla currently has 160 supercharging stations in South Korea, and they have canceled the plan to install a supercharging station in Sokcho, Gangwon-do, which breaches the contract signed with the local municipal government last June.

Tesla plans to significantly downsize. Tesla Korea offers a severance package equivalent to four months' salary for employees who have worked for five years or more, three months' salary for employees who have worked for at least one year but less than five years, and one month's salary for employees who have worked for less than one year.

Those who apply for voluntary resignation before May 16 have two options: one is to get an additional two months' salary on top of the basic severance pay but are required to leave by June 30; the other option is to get an additional one month's salary and one month's paid vacation and are required to resign by July 31. And those who apply for resignation between May 17 and 22 can get an additional one month's salary on top of the basic severance pay.

At the same time, the contracts of interns and students will be cancelled, and Tesla Korea has not posted any positions on the recruitment website.

Tesla has been reducing the prices of its vehicles in the global market including China and South Korea. Thanks to cheaper Chinese batteries, Tesla reduced the price of Model Y in South Korea by about 20 million won last year (TapTechNews note: currently about 160,000 US dollars).