People aren’t always in the mood for unexpected visits, especially when sick. But when it’s your boss coming to see if you’re really ill, temperatures and tensions rise. Employees at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany, who are on sick leave are receiving visits from company executives, and it’s not to bring them chicken soup.
Unwelcome visit. According to the German media outlet Handelsblatt, a few Tesla factory managers left their offices to visit some of the company’s employees on medical leave.
The workers didn’t take kindly to the company sending inspectors to check that they were indeed recovering. Fortune reported that some of them decided not to open the door. Others considered calling the police if someone from Tesla knocked on their door.
The reason: too much absenteeism. Tesla managers’ unexpected visits to their sick employees aren’t due to the company’s concern for their health.
Seventeen percent of employees at the German factory reported being sick in August, more than three times the average for the local industry. At certain times, up to 30% of the workforce was on sick leave. The percentage of absences was so striking that even Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on his X account that he would take action. “This sounds crazy. Looking into it,” he wrote in a post.
Medical leave and absenteeism. It’s important to remember that medical leave is a legitimate reason for absenteeism. Temporary incapacity to work for medical reasons is a recognized labor right prescribed by the medical personnel of the Social Security or Mutual Assistance Program. During this period, the employee receives medical treatment until they recover to return to their activity. The authorized medical personnel determines if the employee can start working again.
On the other hand, unjustified absenteeism is when an employee fails to fulfill their obligation to report to work at the agreed-upon times or dates without medical or other justification.
Work overload as a trigger. Dirk Schulze, regional director of the IG Metall union—which represents a substantial portion of Tesla’s 12,000 factory workers—told Fortune that work overload and long hours are at the root of the increase in absenteeism. According to him, Tesla should make changes to its work culture if it wants to see a reduction in sick leave among its employees. “Employees from almost all areas of the factory have reported an extremely high workload,” the unionist told The Guardian.
In response, senior production manager André Thierig said: “In our analyses of attendance at work, some phenomena have become obvious: on Fridays and late shifts, about 5% more employees take sick leave than on other weekdays.”
According to the manager, this didn’t indicate poor working conditions. They’re the same on all working days and shifts. Temporary workers who share shifts with full-time workers have an absenteeism rate of 2%.
Tesla sees this as an abuse of the law. Thierig believes the employees are abusing the German welfare system, which requires companies to fully cover their employees’ first six weeks of medical leave. “The German social system is being exploited to some extent. We have to appeal to the employees’ work ethic,” he told Fortune.
However, this isn’t the first time Tesla has struggled with employee retention. A few weeks after its Berlin factory began operations, the company had its first problem with employee resignations.
Image | Tesla
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