Futurism reports:

A Tesla engineer has accused Tesla of threatening her team with deportation after bringing up a brake safety issue with CEO Elon Musk in 2014.

Balan was fired after informing Musk that she was worried floor carpets could curl up underneath the pedals in Model S vehicles, she says, in a major braking safety hazard.

According to Balan, she was simply following Musk’s orders to “talk to me” if staffers thought it was the “fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company,” according to an email he sent to all employees in 2013, as quoted by Electrek.

Instead of listening to her concerns, Balan says that a team of Tesla lawyers threatened to deport members of her team who were waiting on green card applications, if she didn’t resign on the spot — which she did, in protest. The members had stood behind her decision to raise flags over the floor carpet issue.

The former engineer, who has been in remission for stage 3 breast cancer, called Musk a “monster” and “pure evil” in an interview with The Times of London, revealing that she’s extending her already years-long legal battle against the mercurial CEO and his carmaker.

It’s yet another instance of Tesla employees becoming victims of Musk’s infamously vindictive and unpredictable management style. Workers have had to deal with unsafe working conditions, long hours, rampant racism, mass layoffs, and retaliation from the upper ranks. [Continue reading…]