Tesla has taken an unusual approach to deal with a high rate of sick leave at Giga Berlin. The company has been sending managers to make unannounced home visits to check on employees who have frequently called in sick.
Over the past few months, sick leave at Giga Berlin has reached unusually high levels. In August 2024, the rate among the 12,000 employees hit 17%. By September that number had dropped to 11%, but not low enough for Tesla to take action.
Although the company initially tried to mitigate the issue by offering bonuses to employees with lower rates of sick leave, the number of employees off on sick leave continued to disrupt production and affect the factory’s overall efficiency.
To get a handle on the issue, Tesla’s management, including Managing Director André Thierig and Head of Human Resources Erik Demmler, began making unannounced home visits to employees who had called in sick, according to a report by Handlesblatt.
The focus of these visits was not to cast suspicion on the entire workforce. Instead, the company aimed to address a small group of around 30 employees who exhibited unusually long periods of sick leave or had repeatedly submitted sick notes.
“That meant we had to go to the people. And that’s what we did. This has nothing to do with general suspicion. We simply picked out 30 employees who had the relevant abnormalities, who had been on sick leave for quite a long time, but also to a lot of people who handed in first sick notes,” Demmler said at a works council meeting last week.
The reaction from employees has been mixed. While some welcomed the visit and explained their health situation to the managers, others felt uncomfortable and even threatened by the visit.
While the decision to make unannounced home visits has raised concerns among some employees, it is not illegal. In Germany, employers have the legal right to verify an employee’s sick leave, but there has to be justification for the visit, which Tesla appears to have.
