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At
its annual news conference, IG Metall, which has an office near
the plant and says it is in regular contact with workers, said a
growing number reported longer working hours with little free
time.
Workers were also increasingly fearful about discussing their
working conditions openly because of non-disclosure agreements
they were told to sign along with their work contracts, IG
Metall said.
A new role advertised on Tesla's career website for a "Security
Intelligence Investigator", who will partner with legal and
human resources departments to carry out "collection of
on-the-ground information both within and beyond Tesla walls in
order to protect the company from threats", exacerbated these
concerns.
"Workers started at Tesla with great enthusiasm for the project.
Over time we are observing that this enthusiasm is withering,"
Irene Schulz of IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen said in a
statement.
"Tesla is not doing enough to improve working conditions and is
leaving too little time for leisure, family and recovery."
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
Tesla China has also asked some staff to sign non-disclosure
agreements, according to two sources with knowledge of the
matter. Reuters found several people on LinkedIn with the title
of "Security Intelligence Investigator" working for Tesla in
Austin, San Francisco and Shanghai.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday that
local politicians from the centre-left SPD to the centre-right
CDU expressed concern about the allegations, calling for
inquiries both by Tesla and the local government.
"The state government of Brandenburg must enforce occupational
safety through close controls at Tesla," Christian Baeumler of
the Christian Democrats (CDU) said to Handelsblatt.
The Brandenburg government was not immediately available for
comment.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, additional reporting by Zhang
Yan; editing by Jason Neely)
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