Automotive industry Musk declares high sickness rate at German plant a top priority

Due to the high sickness rate at the German Tesla plant near Berlin, company boss Elon Musk wants to take a personal look at the situation. "That sounds crazy. I'm looking into it," he commented on his short message service X.

Musk was responding to an X post about the allegedly unusually high sickness rate at the Grünheide plant.

Tesla had recently caused a stir by frequently making home visits to employees at the Grünheide plant who had reported sick. Home visits are nothing unusual - "many companies do this," plant manager André Thierig told the German news agency DPA. "We wanted to appeal to the work ethic of the workforce." IG Metall, on the other hand, criticized the very high workload at the car factory and called the home visits an "absurd action".

According to Tesla, the unannounced home visits were triggered by an above-average sickness rate in the summer months. "At times, it reached 15 percent or more," said Thierig. Tesla has been manufacturing electric cars in Grünheide in Brandenburg for more than two years. According to the company, almost 12,000 employees work there.