Carmaker wants to ‘appeal to employees’ work ethic’ but move prompts outrage from plant’s union

The boss of a Tesla factory has defended the decision to send managers to the homes of workers on long-term sick leave.

In recent weeks, a director of Tesla’s electric car plant in Germany sent managers to check up on about two dozen employees who have continued to be paid while being on sick leave over the past nine months.

André Thierig, the plant’s manufacturing director, said the home visits were common practice in the industry and that the company simply wanted to “appeal to the employees’ work ethic”.

The move by Elon Musk’s US-headquartered carmaker has sparked outrage at the trade union IG Metall, which represents a proportion of the 12,000 workers at the Berlin-Brandenburg gigafactory.

  • @[email protected]OPEnglish
    15•1 month ago

    As of October 2023, according to Brandenburg’s Minister of Health Ursula Nonnemacher, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg employs 11,500 people. The labor union IG Metall stated more than 1,000 employees have jointly demanded improved working conditions in a first-time campaign at the Grünheide factory and numerous Tesla employees have complained about poor working conditions. The workers criticized the workload as “extreme” due to short cycle times, a lack of personnel and excessive production targets. Employees also pointed to serious deficiencies in health protection, which led to sickness rates of up to around 30 percent and a high number of work accidents. When the union put up stickers in 2023 that read, “Our health is more important than the next billion to Elon,” Tesla warned of disciplinary action that included termination without notice.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_Berlin-Brandenburg