Bosses at the Tesla Gigafactory in Brandenburg, near Berlin, have requested that sick employees waive their right to keep health information private to “prove” that they are ill.

Tesla factory in Berlin demands employees “prove” sickness

Managers at the Tesla factory in Brandenburg have sent letters to employees on sick leave demanding that they share sensitive personal information about their health to “prove” that they are genuinely sick.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt, which has seen several of the letters, reports that Tesla bosses are threatening to halt employees’ sick leave pay and reclaim sick leave pay which has already been issued. 

The company is demanding that absent employees release confidential information about the nature of their sickness for every day they have missed work and that they “release their doctors from their duty of confidentiality”. The IG Metall trade union, which represents workers at the Grünheide plant, called the demand an “unacceptable approach”. 

In Germany, you are required to inform your employer immediately if you are sick and must provide a doctor’s note if you are off work for more than three days, unless your contract stipulates otherwise. During your sick leave - and for up to six weeks after you first call in sick - your employer is required to pay your regular wage. 

If you are still sick after six weeks, your employer is no longer obliged to pay your wage. Instead, you can claim sickness benefit (Krankengeld). Krankengeld amounts to 70 percent of your gross salary and is paid out by your health insurance provider.

Tesla previously criticised for creating “culture of fear” around sick leave

This isn’t the first time that Tesla’s treatment of ill employees has been called into question. After an unusually high number of Tesla employees were off sick from the Grünheide factory in early 2024, The Guardian reported that bosses from the company “checked on” around 24 factory employees at home while they were on sick leave.

IG Metall then retorted that a “culture of fear” and “extremely high workload” were likely the main reasons for the 15 percent sick leave rate among permanent employees.

Since the factory opened in 2022, German magazine Stern has also reported on several worrying factory accidents endangering employees and the environment. These include a fire caused by a battery, which resulted in contaminated water leaking into the soil, and an illegal petrol station which “uncontrollably” leaked 250 litres of diesel.

Tesla’s German sales recorded a nosedive in January 2025, which is being attributed to Elon Musk’s involvement in Donald Trump’s administration, his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and his apparent Hitler salute following Trump’s inauguration. According to a recent survey of over 100.000 people in Germany, 94 percent said they would not buy a vehicle from Tesla.

Meanwhile, on March 19, the value of X, which Musk bought in April 2022, returned to the 44 billion US dollars that the trillionaire initially paid for the platform.

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