TESLA MOTORS, INC. | Child Labor Audit at Tesla Motors

Status
7.78% votes in favour
AGM date
Proposal number
9
Resolution details
Company ticker
TSLA
Lead filer
National Center for Public Policy
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Modern slavery inc. forced labour
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request that, beginning in 2026, Tesla report to shareholders (at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information) on the extent to which its business plans with respect to electric vehicles and their charging stations involve, rely on, or depend on child labor outside the United States. The report would optimally be fully transparent with regard to sources relied on and their credibility and expressly identifies any instances in which Tesla has failed to determine whether child labor is implicated and the causes of those failures.
Supporting statement
Tesla’s business plans and continued prominence as a company relies on the production and distribution of electric vehicles (EV). Since 2018, Tesla has produced approximately 7 million EVs and is estimated to produce 2.07 million in 2025.(1)
Every EV that Tesla produces requires a lithium-ion battery containing cobalt to function.(2) The majority of cobalt mined globally is produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is estimated to have the highest worldwide mineral production of cobalt.(3)​
Cobalt mining in the DRC is often done by children — as many as 40,000 — reportedly working in brutal and unsafe conditions.(4) These workers are euphemistically referred to as “informal workers”. Upon review, forced and child labor abuses were found in 75% of lithium battery supply chains.(5)
Many of these children are reportedly injured and killed in the dangerous conditions required to mine cobalt in the DRC.(6) The DRC’s government reportedly exacerbates this problem: the U.S. Department of Labor notes that the DRC has “made minimal efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.”(7)​
Tesla is aware that child labor may be present in its supply lines; the company noted in 2022 the potential dangers involved in sourcing cobalt from the DRC.(8) Also, Tesla stated in its 2024 Impact Report that the company “invested more human and legal recourses than ever before to combat forced and child labor…”.(9) However, specific metrics were not provided by Tesla as to how this was being done.(10) While a case against Tesla and other companies brought by former child miners was dismissed on procedural grounds, there are still open questions as to Tesla’s culpability in international child labor.(11)
Child labor — and refusal to address it — is a gross violation of human rights. However, Tesla may be profiting from child labor and associated human rights abuses in its effort to flood the market with their EVs.
Shareholders have the right to know the extent to which Tesla relies on or is involved with the direct or indirect exploitation of child labor outside the United States.

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