Germany Tesla, Employee 'Feigning Illness' Sick Leave Verified with Home Visit Investigation

According to the German economic newspaper Handelsblatt on the 25th (local time), Tesla's German factory management reportedly conducted unannounced home visits to check whether employees' sick leaves were genuine or feigned.

According to a recording of a management meeting obtained by the media, factory HR manager Erik Demmer said, "We selected 30 suspicious employees who took a lot of sick leave," adding, "In many cases, their reactions were subtly aggressive."

The management revealed that the employee sick leave rate reached 15-17% last month and that, in addition to home visits, they also investigated whether emergencies occurred on Fridays. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, the overall sick leave rate for workers in Germany last year was 6.1%, while the average in the automotive industry was 5.2%.

Handelsblatt reported that Tesla introduced a system in July that awards a bonus of 1,000 euros (approximately 1.49 million won) to 'Gold grade' employees whose absences are less than 5% of regular working hours, but it did not show significant effects.

On the 6th, Tesla's 'Cybertruck' was unveiled for the first time in Korea at the '2024 Auto Salon Week' held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

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