Posts Tagged: ‘must

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: the best Ultra ever, and a must buy

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is a seriously impressive, very tempting smartphone. Get ready for a very positive review.
Digital Trends

The Clicks For iPhone Keyboard Case Must Come To Android

The Clicks for iPhone adds something to Cupertino’s phone that it’s never had before – a physical keyboard. And it looks that good that we’d love to see it come to Android
TalkAndroid

Elon Musk tells SpaceX and Tesla workers they must return to the office full-time

Elon Musk delivered an ultimatum to Tesla and Space X’s corporate workforces: Spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office, or leave the company. Musk today confirmed in a tweet that screenshots of an email sent to workers was real. According to The New York Times, workers at both companies received similar memos from Musk that made clear that all workers must report to a main office for 40 hours a week. Musk also wrote that employees would no longer be allowed to work from “remote branch” offices not related to their job duties, giving the example of an HR worker for the Fremont factory who works out-of-state.

“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Musk said in a memo to SpaceX employees obtained by NYT. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”

Musk taking a hardline stance on remote work is in stark contrast to a number of other major tech companies that have allowed all or most workers to request to work-from-home permanently, including Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and Slack. Apple recently suspended a requirement that workers return to the office at least three days a week.

As Bloombergreported today, Twitter employees — who are likely to be reporting to Musk once his acquisition of the company is complete — have internally expressed some concern the SpaceX and Tesla remote work policies (or lack thereof) herald unwelcome changes for their own workplace.

Tesla’s career website still lists a number of salaried and hourly remote positions. It’s unclear whether the new policy will apply to those positions. Engadget has reached out to Tesla for comment, though we are unlikely to hear back: the company dissolved its corporate communications department in 2020.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Tesla must pay $137 million in discrimination lawsuit

Tesla has been ordered to pay $ 137 million in damages to a former Black worker who accused the company of turning a blind eye to discrimination and racial abuse at the company's EV plant in Fremont California, the Washington Post has reported. A San Francisco federal court jury awarded the judgement — reportedly one of the largest in an individual race discrimination employment case — to Owen Diaz, an elevator operator who worked as a contract employee in 2015 and 2016.

In the lawsuit, Diaz alleged that he faced discrimination "straight from the Jim Crow era," in which he was subjected to racial slurs. He alleged that Tesla employees left drawings of swastikas, racist graffiti and offensive cartoons around the plant, while supervisors neglected to halt the abuse. "Tesla's progressive image was a façade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees," according to the lawsuit. 

The jury awarded Diaz $ 6.9 million for emotional distress, but the majority, $ 130 million, was punitive damages against Tesla. "It's a great thing when one of the richest corporations in America has to have a reckoning of the abhorrent conditions at its factory for Black people," said the lawyer for Diaz, Lawrence Organ. 

"It took four long years to get to this point,” Diaz told the New York Times. “It’s like a big weight has been pulled off my shoulders.”

In response to the verdict, Tesla downplayed the allegations in a blog post written by human resources VP Valerie Capers Workman. "In addition to Mr. Diaz, three other witnesses (all non-Tesla contract employees) testified at trial that they regularly heard racial slurs (including the N-word) on the Fremont factory floor,” she wrote. “While they all agreed that the use of the N-word was not appropriate in the workplace, they also agreed that most of the time they thought the language was used in a ‘friendly’ manner and usually by African-American colleagues.”

Tesla added that it was responsive to Mr. Diaz's complaints, firing two contractors and suspending another. She said that while the facts didn't justify the verdict, the company was "not perfect" in 2015 and 2016, "but we have come a long way." The company has yet to say whether it plans to appeal.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

French court rules Steam games must be able to be resold

In a court decision that could fundamentally change how Steam operates, European Union consumers have won the right to resell their Steam titles through Valve's digital marketplace. French website Next Inpact reports the Paris Court of First Instance…
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Android apps must have 64-bit support by August 2019

Android has supported 64-bit apps ever since Lollipop arrived in 2015, but they haven't been necessary. Now, however, Google is laying down the law… or rather, it will. As of August 2019, Android apps will have to support 64-bit code. They won't…
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India mandates all smartphones must come with a panic button

India has decreed that, from 2017, all phones must be sold with a panic button that lets users instantly alert the emergency services. A year later and all devices sold must also come with GPS as standard in order for authorities to quickly locate vi…
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Appeals Court: Copyright holders ‘must consider fair use’ before sending DMCAs

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Universal Music Group in a 2007 Digital Millennium Copyright Act case that could change how and when copyright holders can send takedown notices. The case revolves around a takedown notice sent to…
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