Report: Tesla factory suffered higher injury rate than average

A worker carries a front end part along the assembly at Tesla Motors, California's only full-scale auto manufacturing plant, as seen on Thurs. Feb. 19, 2015, in Fremont, Calif. A worker carries a front end part along the assembly at Tesla Motors, California's only full-scale auto manufacturing plant, as seen on Thurs. Feb. 19, 2015, in Fremont, Calif. Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2015 Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2015 Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Report: Tesla factory suffered higher injury rate than average 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Tesla’s Fremont factory in recent years recorded far higher injury rates than the automotive industry’s average, with serious injuries in 2015 roughly double the norm, according to a report released Wednesday by a workplace safety group.

The report comes as some Tesla workers are pushing for union representation, citing safety and working conditions among their main concerns. At the same time, Tesla is trying to boost production of its luxury electric cars and will soon begin building its next vehicle, the Model 3.

Tesla has been pushing back against allegations of grueling hours and tough working conditions at the plant: It reported in a blog post this month that injury rates have shown substantial improvement this year.

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But Doug Parker, executive director of the Oakland nonprofit group Worksafe, which issued Wednesday’s report, said the company will need a renewed focus on employee safety as it tries to build 500,000 cars next year, up from nearly 84,000 in 2016.

“Whatever they’re doing, they’re going to be facing a whole new health and safety environment if they’re going to ramp up production like that,” Parker said. “Things are going to change soon there.”

Worksafe delved into Tesla’s injury data after hearing from the United Automobile Workers union and several Tesla employees about safety concerns at the plant. The union has been meeting with Tesla employees interested in organizing the factory.

Worksafe examined injury and incident reports that Tesla files with the government and compared them to industry-wide data.

It found that Tesla recorded 8.4 injuries per 100 workers in 2014 and 8.8 in 2015. The entire U.S. auto industry, in comparison, averaged 7.3 injuries per 100 workers in 2014 and 6.7 in 2015.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has not yet calculated an industry-wide average for 2016, according to the report. Tesla’s 2016 “total recordable incident rate” declined to 8.1 injuries per 100 workers, which Worksafe says is still higher than the industry’s historic norm.

The plant also suffered a higher rate of serious injuries, measured through a statistic known as the “days away, restricted duty or transfer rate.”

That rate rose from 7.1 injuries per 100 workers in 2014 to 7.9 in 2015 before declining to 7.3 last year. The industry average in 2014 was 4.2 injuries per 100 workers, while in 2015 it fell to 3.9 — roughly half of the Tesla factory’s rate.

The report urges Tesla to pay more attention to workplace safety, and its conclusion argues that factory workers need a greater say in how the plant runs. The report does not, however, explicitly call for unionization.

“We’ve heard anecdotally from workers that their complaints at Tesla had not been taken seriously in the past, and they were labeled ‘complainers,’” Parker said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “If the workers were listened to, there would be better outcomes.”

Tesla has said that its workplace safety record is improving, in part as a result of adding a third shift at the factory and reducing overtime. In the recent blog post, the company said its total recordable incident rate dropped to 4.6 injuries per 100 workers over the first quarter of this year — 32 percent better than the most recent industry-wide average.

“We may have had some challenges in the past as we were learning how to become a car company, but what matters is the future, and with the changes we’ve made, we now have the lowest injury rate in the industry by far,” the company responded Wednesday. “Our goal is to have as close to zero injuries as humanly possible and to become the safest factory in the auto industry.”

The report claims that Tesla has at times made major revisions to the workplace injury reports it has already filed to the government, with the revised reports showing more injuries than the earlier versions.

As a result, Worksafe argues, the company’s first quarter 2017 results could still change. A Tesla spokesman, however, said Wednesday that the company’s new results are based on revised data, not preliminary figures.

Alan Ochoa, a Tesla factory employee now on leave after developing carpal tunnel syndrome, said the unionization effort had forced the company to take worker safety more seriously.

Ochoa, one of two injured employees quoted in the Worksafe report, started at the factory in 2014 assembling door panels. He said he and his fellow workers had a hard time keeping up with the pace of the assembly line. He has now undergone two operations to improve the movement in his wrists and may require a third.

“I think with the union, things could get a lot better,” he said Wednesday. “I believe there’s change because of the union. ... We’re already seeing what the union can do without even being inside the factory.”

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF