Police were called to a works council meeting at a Tesla plant outside Berlin over accusations by management that a union representative was unlawfully recording the session, a police spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.
The incident at the US carmaker’s only European plant came just weeks before staff at the facility are due to elect a new works council in early March.
Tesla has long been at odds with labour representatives from the powerful IG Metall union, which represents workers across German industry and has been pushing for a collective wage agreement at the Grünheide plant, where production was launched in 2022.
André Thierig, senior director at the plant, accused an “external union representative from IG Metall” of recording Tuesday’s works council meeting without authorization.
“For unknown reasons he recorded the internal meeting and was caught in action! We obviously called police and filed a criminal complaint,” Thierig wrote in an English-language post on X on Tuesday evening.
IG Metall rejected the accusations, describing them as a smear campaign.
“This claim is a brazen and calculated lie,” the IG Metall – Tesla Workers GFBB group said.
The group is represented on the council with 16 members, making it the largest faction in the body.
The head of the works council did not allow the union representative to address the accusations, according to the union. Instead, she interrupted the meeting and called security and police, which seized the man’s laptop.
The police spokesman confirmed a criminal complaint was filed and evidence secured on Tuesday.
The investigation concerns suspected breaches of confidentiality and possible violations of German labour law, the spokesman said, without providing further details.
dpa
