Tesla under fire after visiting ‘sick’ workers at home in Germany

Tesla is facing fresh controversy after managers made a controversial move to sick workers.

Tesla managers are visiting staff members’ houses when they’re off sick to check they’re not faking it.

Union figures claim workers were exposed to a “culture of fear” at the mammoth Tesla Gigafactory located in Gruenheide, on the outskirts of the German capital Berlin.

The problem-plagued factory has 12,000 employees and has been the target of protests and arson from climate activists opposing forest clearing as part of expansion plans.

Production was temporarily halted on March 5 after activists allegedly set fire to high-voltage lines, cutting power to the car maker's only plant in Europe.

Now management is dealing with the fallout of revelations that staff who were on long-term sick leave were being checked on at their homes.

A line of electric vehicles at Tesla's "Gigafactory" plant in Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin. Picture: Patrick Pleul/AFP

German newspaper Handelsblatt obtained a recording of an internal meeting where the plant’s head of human resources described the “aggression” he faced while making house calls.

“By having the door slammed shut,” Erik Demmler.

“By being threatened with the police. By being asked if you don’t have to make an appointment first.”

Handelsblatt reports the sick rate at Berlin Gigafactory had risen to 17 per cent in August.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, he was “looking into” the sick rate after being alerted to the German reporting.

“This sounds crazy,” Mr Musk wrote.

Tesla chief Elon Musk has promised to investigate the absenteeism. Picture: Odd Andersen/ AFP

Andre Thierig, the plant’s manufacturing director, has said the company made the house visits as it wanted to “appeal to the employees’ work ethic”, according to The Guardian.

He said 200 staff members had been identified as being paid but had not turned up to work in 2024, saying they “submit a new sicknote from the doctor at least every six weeks”.

Mr Thierig also said analysis had revealed five per cent more staff were calling in sick on Fridays or late shifts than on other weekdays.

“That is not an indicator of bad working conditions because the working conditions are the same on all working days and across all shifts,” he said.

“It suggests that the German social system is being exploited to some extent.”

Union figures say staff are overworked at the plant. Picture: Christian Marquardt/Getty Images

In July, dwnews reported Mr Thierig called out the theft of 65,000 coffee mugs that had been bought by the company for workers since the plant opened in 2022.

IG Metall, the union representing some staff at the factory, claims work stress was the cause of the high rate of absenteeism.

“Employees from almost all areas of the factory have reported an extremely high workload,” Dirk Schulze, a regional director at the union, told The Guardian.

“When there are staff shortages, the ill workers are put under pressure and those who remain healthy are overburdened with additional work.”

Tesla's Gigafactory opened in March 2022 at Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin. Picture: Patrick Pleul/AFP

Mr Musk this year told investors he wanted to ramp up production at Tesla factories to facilitate a mass rollout of EVs.

“We really need the engineers to be living on the line,” he said in January.

“We’ll be sleeping on the line, practically. Not practically, we will be.”

Germany has strong labour laws where the maximum work day is eight hours. The typical work week in the country is between 35 and 40 hours.

Tesla had rejected lobbying for an enterprise agreement with IG Metall, including from the union and Brandenburg’s Economy Minister Jorg Steinbach.

It has instead offered employees various benefits such as free charging of electric vehicles, free bus and train shuttles, subsidised train tickets and bicycle leasing.