Musk Confirms Tesla to Fire 10% of Workers in Next 3 Months

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Tuesday that his electric vehicle company will fire 10% of the workforce over the next three months.

"Tesla is reducing roughly 10% of its salaried staff in the next three months," Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum.

The statement confirmed reports that have been circulating in the media for two weeks now.

"We grew very fast on the salaried side. A year from now, I think our headcount will be higher," the world’s richest man said, adding that Tesla has already cut 3.5% of its jobs.

The announcement comes days after Tesla shareholder Solomon Chau filed a lawsuit against the billionaire entrepreneur, Tesla Inc. and its board of directors over their alleged encouragement of discriminatory practices in the workplace. The document cites multiple cases of verbal abuse, racial and sexual discrimination and harassment against Tesla's employees.

The plaintiff believes that Tesla's "toxic workplace culture" caused "financial harm" and "irreparable" reputational damage to the detriment of the firm's stockholders.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX were being jointly sued for $258 billion over claims that they had engineered a racketeering scheme involving the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.