A former Tesla Inc. regional service supervisor claims Elon Musk’s electric-car firm was too low-cost to put in air con within the bay of one among its service retailers to guard technicians throughout warmth waves — and that he finally obtained fired over his complaints.

Benjamen Simon reported unsafe working circumstances from warmth “reaching dangerous temperatures” on the Tesla store flooring in Peabody, Massachusetts, a number of instances in 2021 and urged administration to put in air con, in response to a grievance filed Thursday in Boston federal court docket after it was transferred from state court docket.

Tesla denies wrongdoing within the case.

Simon claims he stored escalating the requests, even after his managers advised him Tesla’s finance division wouldn’t approve spending “well over $100,000 for just one location to get air conditioning,” in response to the grievance.

“The dangerous heat situation did not improve,” Kathleen Davidson, a lawyer for the previous supervisor, wrote within the grievance. “Tesla disregarded Simon’s safety complaints.”

Instead, Simon claims beforehand pleasant bosses cooled towards him and, inside weeks, stripped him of three of the eight dealerships he supervised. A month later, Simon mentioned, he was fired in retaliation for pushing the AC difficulty, in what he says was a pretext Tesla concocted involving his use of an organization car.

Simon alleges he was wrongfully terminated and needs a jury to award him misplaced wages, misplaced advantages and inventory choices, in addition to compensation for emotional misery.

“Tesla maintains that plaintiff is not entitled to any relief whatsoever,” Anthony Califano, the carmaker’s lawyer, mentioned in a petition to maneuver the go well with to federal court docket. He mentioned the case belongs there as a result of Simon is looking for between $2.7 million and $10 million in damages, effectively above the brink required to shift state court docket claims involving an out-of-state get together.

Neither Califano nor Nicole Chomiak, one other lawyer for Tesla, responded to requests for touch upon the lawsuit exterior common enterprise hours.

The case is Simon v. Tesla, 23-cv-10583, US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).