Managers at Tesla’s Grünheide manufacturing facility in Germany are visiting the properties of employees on sick go away—however don’t anticipate them to be bringing hen noodle soup and orange juice.
A director of Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg despatched managers to verify on about 30 sick staff, based on German information outlet Handelsblatt. Per a recording from an inner assembly, these visits had been paid.
Staff didn’t reply properly to visits from their managers, with some planning to name the police or slamming the door on their supervisors.
However Grünheide manufacturing facility manufacturing director André Thierig doubled down on the corporate’s resolution to go to sick employees. He argued widespread use of sick days is a results of employees making the most of Germany’s coverage that grants staff full pay for six weeks of go away. About 5% extra staff take sick go away on Fridays and late shifts in comparison with different workdays, he mentioned, citing firm analyses.
“That isn’t an indicator of unhealthy working situations as a result of the working situations are the identical on all working days and throughout all shifts,” Thierig instructed the Guardian. “It means that the German social system is being exploited to some extent.”
Thierig added that visiting employees on sick go away was frequent apply and simply an “attraction to the workers’ work ethic.”
Union grievances
The check-ups observe experiences of rampant absenteeism on the manufacturing facility. Handelsblatt reported that sick go away at Tesla’s German manufacturing facility elevated 17% in August, triple the typical within the Germany auto trade.
The surge even caught the eye of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who wrote on X that he plans to analyze the matter.
Dirk Schulze, a regional director of IG Metall, the German union representing a piece of the manufacturing facility’s 12,000 employees, mentioned harsh working situations and lengthy hours have necessitated increased charges of sick go away. Tesla ought to make modifications to its work tradition if it needs to see a discount in worker sick go away, he mentioned.
“Staff from virtually all areas of the manufacturing facility have reported a particularly excessive workload,” he instructed the Guardian. “When there are workers shortages, the unwell employees are put beneath stress and people who stay wholesome are overburdened with further work.”
Tesla and IG Metall didn’t reply to Fortune’s request for remark.
Final October, German media reported a excessive quantity of work-related accidents on the manufacturing facility, equivalent to burns and limb amputations, that compelled employees to take at the least three days of sick go away. Tesla mentioned employees acquired protecting clothes and coaching on manufacturing facility security.
The German gigafactory, which opened in 2022 as the corporate’s first European operation, promised the flexibility to ultimately produce 1,000,000 automobiles per 12 months. However it has fallen quick and lowered its month-to-month manufacturing objectives final 12 months because it navigated reducing prices on electrical automobiles amid waning demand. Tesla deliberate to hold out voluntary layoffs of about 300 German manufacturing facility employees in April.
Months after the German manufacturing facility started operations, the plant had bother retaining staff. Employees on the time claimed some staff took sick go away longer than their interval of employment attributable to lack of motivation. Others left attributable to low pay in an in any other case aggressive trade.
The EV big has a observe file of allegedly punishing employees for taking sick go away exterior of its European operations. Throughout the pandemic, two U.S. Tesla employees mentioned they acquired termination notices after calling out sick and opting out of unpaid go away, regardless of the corporate giving staff the choice of not returning to work ought to they not really feel comfy. Tesla manufacturing facility employees in Nevada have claimed the corporate threatened to fireside them for taking sick days, which Tesla deemed “an unplanned time off.”
“It’s on the discretion of the supervisor,” an nameless Tesla worker instructed the Guardian in 2019. “In the event that they need to do away with you, it’s very straightforward to say an absence was unscheduled or not accepted.”