The works council election at the electric car manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide has to be canceled and rescheduled following a court decision. The Frankfurt (Oder) labor court granted the union’s application IG Metall for an interim injunction.
The chamber assumes procedural errors made by the electoral board of the Tesla works council. The election may therefore only begin from February 29, 2024. The court announced that “with the necessary certainty, the works council election that has been initiated is to be viewed as likely to be void.”
The electoral board did not observe the statutory deadline
According to the judges, the electoral board did not comply with the statutory 24-month deadline by issuing the election notice on February 1, 2024 and thus initiating a works council election. The first election of the incumbent works council took place on February 28, 2022, and elections should now take place again from March 18 to 20. “Initiating a works council election outside the times stipulated by the Works Constitution Act represents, in the chamber’s opinion, an obvious and particularly gross violation of the election regulations,” the judges decided. Accordingly, due to the legal deadline, February 29, 2024 is the deadline for initiating the election.
After a forced break at Tesla, IG Metall sees no time pressure
IG Metall welcomed the labor court’s decision to restart works council elections. “It is good and right that the court removes the completely unnecessary time pressure from the works council election,” explained IG Metall district manager Dirk Schulze. This makes a fair works council election possible.
The company suspended production on January 29th due to the Attacks by the Yemeni Houthi militia on ships in the Red Sea let it rest until February 11th. Because the Transport routes were extended and components were missing. However, Tesla said it continued producing where possible and bridged the time with repairs and training. The election was also initiated at this time.
IG Metall went to the labor court to ensure equal opportunities for all Tesla employees in the election. In the union’s opinion, the electoral board appointed by the current works council unnecessarily created a lot of time pressure in preparing for the election. This would have disadvantaged production employees, as most of them were not at the factory due to the shutdown at Tesla.
According to the company, around 12,500 people currently work in the factory in Grünheide. The Plant opened in March 2022. The company wants to expand production in Grünheide and target 500,000 cars per year double to one million a year – that’s the equivalent of 10,000 cars per week. According to its own information, the company is currently building around 6,000 vehicles per week.