STATE CAPITOL
R0. BOX 942849
SACRAMENTO, CA 94249-0115

(35312th
@alifnrnia illegialahxrn

Januarle, 2017

Elon Musk, CEO
Tesla Motors

3500 Deer Creek Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Dear Mr. Musk:

As Members of the California State Assembly, we applaud Tesla's commitment to a better
environment and its innovative technological advances.

However, it was brought to our attention that Tesla recently asked employees to sign a
confidentiality agreement, including asking the workers to attest to the fact that they have
complied with the policy over the last twelve months. While we certainly appreciate a
company's right to protect its trade secrets and other proprietary information, we have concerns
that the breadth of this agreement impermissibly violates protected employee activity under state
and federal law, including the right to communicate to each other and the public about wages,
working conditions, and other issues.

Primarily, the breadth of the agreement appears to violate employee rights under the National
Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by both promulgating overly-broad work rules directed at
employees? union or concerted activities and by threatening employees for engaging in conduct
which is part of union or concerted activities.

As the General Counsel of the NLRB recently stated in a March 18, 2015 memo, "Employees
have a Section 7 right to discuss wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment
with fellow employees, as well as with nonemployees, such as union representatives. Thus, an
employer's confidentiality policy that either specifically prohibits employee discussions of terms
and conditions of employment;? such as wages, hours, or workplace complaints?or that
employees would reasonably understand to prohibit such discussions, violates the Act."

In addition, several provisions ofCalifornia law prohibit employers from having policies that
prohibit employees from discussing wages and working conditions, or from retaliating against
employees for doing so. (See California Labor Code sections 232, 232.5 and 



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Elon Musk, CEO
January 10, 2017
Page Two

We are concerned that over-broad language in the con?dentiality agreement violates these
provisions and has resulted in a chilling effect on workers' ability to engage in protected activity.
As we are con?dent that this was not your intention, we respectfully request that Tesla revise this
policy to protect employee rights and comply with the law, and immediately communicate this
clari?cation to all workers.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your reply.

SincerelyTONY THURMOND BILL QUIRK
15th Distri 20th District
CHU ROB BONTA
25th District 18th District
ASH KALRA

27th District

cc: Peter Hochholdinger, Vice President, Production
Mark Lipscomb, Vice President, Human Resources