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Tesla Workers in Germany Report Home Visits From Managers While on Sick Leave

Tesla managers visited some employees at home after repeated sick leave at the Grünheide factory, prompting a dispute with IG Metall over absence, workloads and workplace pressure.
Entry244 Date Time3 min MechanicCarCody Team
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In September 2024, reports said managers at Tesla’s Grünheide factory in Germany visited some employees at home after repeated sick leave. Plant manager André Thierig defended the visits as an appeal to employees’ work ethic and said Tesla might continue them. IG Metall criticized the approach, arguing that heavy workloads and staff shortages were contributing to high absence. The reports did not independently establish why absence was high or whether the visits were lawful.

What happened at Tesla’s Grünheide factory

ARD Tagesschau reported on 26 September 2024 that leaders at Tesla’s factory in Grünheide, outside Berlin, had made home visits to employees after repeated periods of sick leave. Thierig, Tesla’s manufacturing director, said the company would continue to consider unannounced visits. He described the purpose as an appeal to employees’ work ethic and said such visits were common among companies. ARD Tagesschau’s account quoted him saying, “Wir wollten an die Arbeitsmoral der Belegschaft appellieren” (“We wanted to appeal to the work ethic of the workforce”).

The number of visits differs across reports. Tagesschau relayed Thierig’s statement that Tesla selected two dozen cases for visits. Ars Technica, reporting on 27 September, said managers visited 30 employees. The reports do not reconcile those counts, so they should not be treated as a single verified figure.

What Tesla said about sickness absence

Thierig told Tagesschau that sickness absence had reached 15 percent or more at times during the summer. He said Tesla had identified a little over 200 employees who had not worked that year while receiving continued wage payment and who submitted new sick notes at least every six weeks; the company selected two dozen cases for visits.

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Ars Technica reported that the absence rate reached as high as 17 percent in summer, compared with a 5.2 percent German auto-industry average. These are figures reported by that outlet, not an independently audited plant dataset. The 15-percent-plus figure is Thierig’s account as relayed by Tagesschau; the outlets do not establish a common measurement basis for the two rates.

Other figures cited by Tesla management

According to Thierig, Tesla’s attendance analysis showed roughly five percent more employees reporting sick on Fridays and late shifts than on other weekdays. He also cited a two percent sickness-absence rate among more than 1,500 temporary workers working under similar conditions. Those comparisons were presented by management; the reports do not provide independent verification of the analysis or enough detail to establish how the groups were measured.

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Why IG Metall objected

IG Metall called the home-visit approach misguided and offered a different explanation for the high absence: pressure and workload. Dirk Schulze, the union’s regional director, said employees across many factory areas reported very high workloads. He argued that staff shortages put pressure on people who were sick and increased the burden on colleagues who remained at work. In Ars Technica’s report, Schulze said that if factory overseers wanted to reduce sickness, they should “break this vicious circle.”

The two sides’ explanations are competing claims, not findings established by the reports. Tesla management pointed to attendance patterns and suspected exploitation of the social system; IG Metall emphasized working conditions, staffing pressure and overburdening. The available accounts do not determine which factors caused the absences.

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What the reports do—and do not—establish

  • The reporting concerns home visits to some employees on sick leave at Tesla’s Grünheide factory, published on 26–27 September 2024.
  • The reported visit count varies: Thierig’s account, relayed by Tagesschau, was two dozen selected cases; Ars Technica reported 30 employees.
  • The sources present sickness-absence figures and explanations attributed to Tesla management, alongside IG Metall’s criticism and workload concerns; they do not independently audit the figures or resolve the causes.
  • The accounts provide no court ruling or sufficiently detailed legal analysis to establish whether the visits were lawful.
  • September 2024 reporting does not show whether the practice continued afterward or whether workplace conditions later changed.

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