Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge
Tesla has told its workers they are allowed to take Juneteenth off as an “excused absence” after some had already showed up for work on the holiday that recognizes the end of slavery in the United States, according to internal emails first reported by BuzzFeed and CNBC. The company also told employees that they would not be paid if they don’t show up.
Just after this story published, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Juneteenth will be “considered a US holiday at Tesla & SpaceX,” though he did not immediately clarify if workers will be paid on those days moving forward.
Other Silicon Valley companies like Spotify, Uber, and Twitter had previously announced ahead of time that they were making Juneteenth a paid company holiday. Automakers like…