Tesla Is Allegedly Withholding Wages Of German Employees On Sick Leave
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Tesla is overtly hostile towards German unions and has convinced enough workers to not join any. They have mostly hired foreign workers who are unaware of their rights. Additionally, workers are pressured to sign documents withdrawing from their right to compensation during sick leave which isn't illegal.
Also, the state government of Brandenburg - the location of the Tesla factory - would rather see worker's rights trampled than Tesla face consequences. Their future election results depend on Tesla performing.
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I hope they rip Elon a big fat fancy new hole in his net wealth. Alas, someone, cue me the tiniest of violins
Germany needs to ban Tesla from their country as a whole. Confiscate the assets and continue to pay the workers until they're relocated or another company buys the factories.
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I’m starting to think the Tesla CEO isn’t a good person.
I know the scriptures say "judge not lest yea be judged", but I'm just gonna come out and say it. This guy is a real jerk!
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I read a German article a few days ago. They definitely threatened to withhold wages. They also pressured workers into disclosing their health info. Via email.
The Unions are (orders of magnitude) more active than in other comparable workplaces.
Oh and of course TESLA does not like people being in unions in the first place.
It is not only the unions, it is the law in Germany. Americans have a hard time understanding the immense power of the law protecting employees here. Withholding sick payment is about as illegal as demanding health info. Both will be easy wins in court. Tesla will find themselves in a place of legal hurt.
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Even if the German courts rule in their favor (they should), good luck getting any money out of Tesla.
They don't need to.
Wage theft is a felony and while primarily will focus on the managing director of Tesla Germany GmbH, there is a good chance they will throw Elon under bus or the DA/Police/customs (especially the later have very far reaching rights in these cases and specialised departments...and now the old secretary of finance who was a trump fan is gone...) finds evidence that it happened under the influence of ELMO or his cronies (which is not that unlikely), there are a lot of people who would be very very happy to issue a warrant on these people.
And that very likely would be an Interpol warrant.Nevertheless the truly interesting thing is something else: Law enforcement can use this felonies to move in on Tesla - and anything they find due to a search warrant can easily be used for other things. And considering that the state Tesla is located in is suffering from a major draught and tries to prove that Tesla is using far more ground water than they are allowed for ages (and pollutes the rest) that could in theory even mean the downsizing or even the end of the Giga factory.
Hehehe.
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If we somehow do that I will be more upset, considering how long it takes to seize the property of Russian oligarchs here.
No, German way is to take this to court.
Fair enough.
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83 percent of respondents often felt overworked and that 59 percent regularly experienced physical discomfort due to their work
We'd probably get the same results at my job. Lot's of physical labor, and yes, it can be uncomfortable.
high worker absenteeism, which reached a whopping 17 percent last summer
JESUS! Not like that!
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It is not only the unions, it is the law in Germany. Americans have a hard time understanding the immense power of the law protecting employees here. Withholding sick payment is about as illegal as demanding health info. Both will be easy wins in court. Tesla will find themselves in a place of legal hurt.
It is not only the unions, it is the law in Germany.
I should have made that clearer!
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I hope they rip Elon a big fat fancy new hole in his net wealth. Alas, someone, cue me the tiniest of violins
Pretty sure that's the tiniest.
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Good luck with trying to evade payments.
I don't know how things work in Germany but here in Finland we have an government agency which pays salaries if company can't or won't as a safeguard for employees. After that they go after the company with pretty beefy lawsuits which eventually say that either the company pays for the salaries and some extra for the trouble or government just seizes and sells enough property that they get what they're owed. And if company doesn't have money nor property then it'll go bankrupt and that's it. I assume Germany (and most of the other European countries) have similar mechanisms.
And then there's of course the union too. They can just decide to either stop coming to work altogether or go in a 'sitting strike', as in show up but don't do anything during the day. And they can enforce that, you can't just hire new people to replace those on strike.
or government just seizes and sells enough property that they get what they’re owed
Nice. Can you link a case where that actually happened?
About the unions, I'm actually bound to partake in union strikes or similar action. You can't be part of a union and then wuss out when the going gets tough.
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They don't need to.
Wage theft is a felony and while primarily will focus on the managing director of Tesla Germany GmbH, there is a good chance they will throw Elon under bus or the DA/Police/customs (especially the later have very far reaching rights in these cases and specialised departments...and now the old secretary of finance who was a trump fan is gone...) finds evidence that it happened under the influence of ELMO or his cronies (which is not that unlikely), there are a lot of people who would be very very happy to issue a warrant on these people.
And that very likely would be an Interpol warrant.Nevertheless the truly interesting thing is something else: Law enforcement can use this felonies to move in on Tesla - and anything they find due to a search warrant can easily be used for other things. And considering that the state Tesla is located in is suffering from a major draught and tries to prove that Tesla is using far more ground water than they are allowed for ages (and pollutes the rest) that could in theory even mean the downsizing or even the end of the Giga factory.
Hehehe.
the old secretary of finance who was a trump fan
Remind me please who that was?
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the old secretary of finance who was a trump fan
Remind me please who that was?
Christian fucking Lindner, who wanted "more Trump and more Milei" in the end. At least he made his own party so hated that they went from "part of the government" to "no longer in parliament".
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Christian fucking Lindner, who wanted "more Trump and more Milei" in the end. At least he made his own party so hated that they went from "part of the government" to "no longer in parliament".
"more Musk and more Milei" is the quote.
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Bold of you to assume I'm expressing defeatism. My point is that Tesla can and will fight it. They'll lose eventually, sure. My hope is that the union has enough money to pay the court costs.
IG Metall is one of the largest unions we have. They have deep pockets. Also, in Germany the losing party automatically pays court fees and their opponent's lawyers afterwards.
I would worry more about those workers who aren't union members. It's possible they'll still help them out of principle, but they don't have to.
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Christian fucking Lindner, who wanted "more Trump and more Milei" in the end. At least he made his own party so hated that they went from "part of the government" to "no longer in parliament".
Christian fucking Lindner
Oh, of course.
️ Thankfully he's gone now. -
or government just seizes and sells enough property that they get what they’re owed
Nice. Can you link a case where that actually happened?
About the unions, I'm actually bound to partake in union strikes or similar action. You can't be part of a union and then wuss out when the going gets tough.
Can you link a case where that actually happened?
Cases where salary was paid by government aren't directly available online (at least in Finland) but I personally have recieved money trough them and followed the process from the side as my previous employer was bankrupted. Also in here the tax office is the biggest entity which drives companies to dept collection and eventually to bankrupt if they don't have money. So, yes, it happens pretty much all the time. Most of the time those are businesses which are going down anyways so there's nothing to get, but there's no mechanism preventing that happening to any company which doesn't play by the rules.
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Looking at the financial figures of Tesla, withholding wages could be a way of maintaining liquidity. In some cases, this is the harbinger of insolvency. Let's see what happens next.
What happens next is that Tesla will be fucked by a German court.
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They don't need to.
Wage theft is a felony and while primarily will focus on the managing director of Tesla Germany GmbH, there is a good chance they will throw Elon under bus or the DA/Police/customs (especially the later have very far reaching rights in these cases and specialised departments...and now the old secretary of finance who was a trump fan is gone...) finds evidence that it happened under the influence of ELMO or his cronies (which is not that unlikely), there are a lot of people who would be very very happy to issue a warrant on these people.
And that very likely would be an Interpol warrant.Nevertheless the truly interesting thing is something else: Law enforcement can use this felonies to move in on Tesla - and anything they find due to a search warrant can easily be used for other things. And considering that the state Tesla is located in is suffering from a major draught and tries to prove that Tesla is using far more ground water than they are allowed for ages (and pollutes the rest) that could in theory even mean the downsizing or even the end of the Giga factory.
Hehehe.
One can only dream.
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IG Metall is one of the largest unions we have. They have deep pockets. Also, in Germany the losing party automatically pays court fees and their opponent's lawyers afterwards.
I would worry more about those workers who aren't union members. It's possible they'll still help them out of principle, but they don't have to.
That's a fantastic rule that I wish were true everywhere. So many frivolous lawsuits (which Elon is well-experienced in filing) would suddenly disappear.
