Launched last March, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin is very impressive. With its 300 hectares and 227,000 m2 of buildings, it is supposed to quickly reach 10,000 employees and produce 5,000 Model Ys per week.
Except that in fact, the company would be very far from the account, if we are to believe the information of Wired. Indeed, the working conditions are described as very poor by a former employee who wished to speak on condition of anonymity.
Tesla’s “lack of empathy” denounced
He describes the internal situation as “chaos”. And for good reason, “Some people are on sick leave longer than they actually worked. There are people I haven’t seen work for three weeks in six months. Many people are on sick leave because the motivation is not there”.
How to explain such a social climate? Our colleagues describe salaries that are too low, 20% lower than those of rivals such as Volkswagen, for equivalent positions. Significant pay inequalities are also reported between employees and some managers. The management would also be inexperienced compared to the competition.
The former employee also mentions a change in working conditions that changed the situation: “After two months, they changed my position to a three-shift, 24/7 system. I have a young son, and for us it was difficult to manage”. And the latter to denounce a “lack of empathy” from Tesla.
In this context, the powerful German union, IG Metall, stepped up to the plate last June. Its representative, Birgit Dietze, explained: “We know from the active members of IG Metall that recruitment is not happening at the expected pace. »
The Gigafactory in Berlin does not meet its objectives
In fact, Tesla has not managed to recruit the 10,000 employees desired and today it only has 7,500. To keep up the pace, Elon Musk’s firm is turning to Poland, which is only a hundred kilometers. 10% of the employees of the Gigafactory would also come from the neighboring country.
But that is still not enough, and according to the latest estimates dating from October, the factory produces only 2,000 cars per week, far from the 5,000 vehicles expected.
Decidedly, the establishment of the Gigafactory in Berlin is not a long calm river for Tesla. We also remember that the car manufacturer had already faced protests from environmental activists, which had long delayed its launch.
