Tesla under pressure to respect Nordic labour rights

Copenhagen — US carmaker Tesla will be urged to respect collective bargaining for its employees in the Nordic region in a joint letter to be sent by a group of pension funds this week, three pension funds said on Monday.

Tesla is facing a backlash in the region from unions and some pension funds over its refusal to accept a demand from Swedish mechanics for collective bargaining rights covering wages and other conditions.

“As investors in Tesla, we recognise the company’s great contribution to the electrification of the transport sector but at the same time call on the management to seek a resolution to the conflict,” Rasmus Bessing, head of responsible investments at PFA, Denmark’s largest nonstate pension fund, told Reuters.

The company has managed to avoid collective bargaining agreements with its roughly 127,000 workers, and CEO Elon Musk has been vocal in his opposition to unions.

Tesla, which has revolutionised the electric car market, says its Swedish employees have as good or better terms than those the union is demanding.

“PFA has chosen to be a co-signatory of a letter to the management of Tesla, where we draw attention to the fact that in Sweden and the other Nordic countries there is a long tradition of collective agreements being entered into in a large part of the labour market,” said Bessing.

This “model has been instrumental in creating prosperity and stability in the region”, he said.

Norway’s KLP pension fund and Sweden’s Folksam said they will also sign the letter.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Tesla's seventh-biggest owner with a $6.8bn stake, said last week that it will continue to push the company to respect labour rights such as collective bargaining.

The manager of that fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, was not immediately available on Monday to comment on the letter planned by other pension providers

Reuters