The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 5th District of Appeals has upheld a previous decision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that found that Elon Musk made unlawful threats of compensation to employees when he tweeted in 2018 that he would take away employees’ stock options if they joined unions.

At the time, Tesla disputed the finding, saying that there was nothing preventing Tesla workers from joining a union, so it could not be considered a threat, but the courts sided with the NLRB, saying:

“Substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s finding, as stock options are part of Tesla’s employee compensation and nothing in the tweet indicates that Tesla will be compelled to give up stock options or cause the UAW to waive its stock options tweet, retaliation for syndication. as a veiled threat to terminate stock options.”

The court also ordered the tweet to be removed and upheld an order for Tesla to reinstate and reimburse a previously fired worker for organizing a union at his factory in Fremont, California. This isn’t the first time Elon Musk and Tesla have faced challenges in managing human resources at the company.