AUSTIN, Texas — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined Tesla after its investigation into the death of a worker at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin.
Tesla has been ordered to pay nearly $50,000 following three “serious” citations issued against the Elon Musk-owned, Austin-based automaker.
The citations come following a letter sent to the agency last month by U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, in which he urged the agency to release information regarding the federal government’s investigation into the death of Victor Gomez Sr., who died at the Gigafactory in August 2024.
“At a time when Elon Musk is gutting protection for workers in Washington, his factory in Austin is being fined for serious safety violations related to the death of a worker,” Casar said in a statement Wednesday. “I will continue to fight for transparency and accountability for workers in my district, because an electrician’s death should not be treated any differently because the CEO he died working for happens to be rich and powerful.”
Background on Gomez’s death
Austin-Travis County EMS and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office were called out to the Tesla facility on the morning of Aug. 1.
Deputies with the sheriff’s office said they were responding to calls of a “deceased person” while EMS officials said they were called about an adult in cardiac arrest. Gomez was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, where he would later die.
Shortly after his death, Gomez’s family filed a lawsuit in Travis County asking for $1 million in damages. According to the lawsuit, Gomez was an employee with Belcan, which contracts employees to companies like Tesla.
The lawsuit states that Gomez, a licensed electrician from Pleasanton, Texas, was told to inspect electrical panels before they were energized. However, the lawsuit claims one of the panels already had power which electrocuted him and left him unconscious.
Legal issues at Tesla
Gomez’s death is not the only example of safety mishaps that have occurred at the Gigafactory.
In 2022, multiple workers at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin filed defense cases to the Department of Labor (DOL) and OSHA for labor and employment violations while on the grounds, and last year the company was fined nearly $7,000 for allegedly exposing four workers to hazardous chemicals without proper training or monitoring at the Gigafactory.
In the 2024 case, inspectors with the OSHA found that workers had been exposed to hexavalent chromium in their work area in the Cybertruck body area of the facility.