Berlin, Sept. 28, (dpa/GNA) – There have been numerous workplace injuries as well as environmental accidents at US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla’s so-called gigafactory just outside Berlin, according to government records.
The incidents came to light in a report by German news outlet Stern in a report to be broadcast on Thursday evening, which cites the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment as well as the Brandenburg State Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Health. The report was made available to dpa.
Tesla reported 190 workplace injuries between June and November of 2022, Brandenburg’s state Ministry of Social Affairs said on Thursday, including seven incidents classified as serious. The factory opened in March and employs about 11,000 workers.
Three of the serious incidents involved Tesla employees, while four others involved construction or assembly workers at the site, which is located in Grünheide, just south-east of the German capital in the state of Brandenburg.
News outlet Stern on Thursday reported on a striking number of workplace accidents at the Tesla facility, including numerous environmental incidents as well as accidents that injured workers.
A serious workplace accident is defined in German law as injuries likely to result in more than six weeks of inpatient treatment or permanent bodily damage that would entitle a worker to an accident pension.
An occupational accident must be reported if employees are unable to work for more than three days – or are killed.
Gabriel Hesse, a spokesman for Brandenburg’s Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Health, told dpa that the number of serious workplace accidents at Tesla are not particularly concerning and that the plant is subject to regular inspections.
“Given the size of the plant, the largest industrial facility in Brandenburg, this is a normal occurrence for us,” Hesse said. “We have no indications that there are an excessive number of health and safety violations” at the Tesla plant.
But trade union leaders and German Labour Minister Hubertus Heil both expressed concern.
“I am deeply concerned about the news that has come to public attention about a large company,” Heil told broadcasters RTL and n-tv for the Stern report.
“We have been concerned about occupational safety at Tesla in Grünheide for some time,” the IG Metall trade union’s leader in Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony, Dirk Schulz, told Stern. “I’m most concerned that someone will be killed at some point.”
Dietmar Bartsch, a leader of the far-left Die Linke (The Left) party, called for an independent audit of Tesla: “If the conditions cannot be improved quickly, a withdrawal of the operating license should ultimately also be considered.”
The leader of Die Linke in Brandenburg’s state parliament called for an inquiry.
The Stern investigation also highlighted 26 environmental incidents that Tesla reported at the factory in the year and a half since it opened. Dpa also obtained those records from the Brandenburg environmental agency.
The incidents include fires as well as spilled substances such as paint and diesel fuel. The spills include 15,000 litres of paint, 13 tons of aluminium and 50 and 150 litres of diesel in two separate incidents.
Brandenburg’s environmental agency said the incidents are considered operational disturbances, not incidents in the sense of Germany’s nationwide major accidents ordinance.
Part of the site is located in a water protection area, and environmentalists have expressed concerns that it could produce pollution and contaminate local water sources.
Tesla has dismissed those concerns.
The car manufacturer admitted that there had been several environmental incidents on the factory site during construction and since commissioning. None of the incidents was an incident under the Federal Ambient Pollution Control Act, and none caused environmental damage, according to the company. Corrective measures were implemented when necessary, Tesla said.
The head of ecosystems at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Martin Pusch, spoke of a fundamental danger with regard to drinking water.
“There is a high risk of drinking water supply being affected due to the low retention capacity of the subsoil,” Pusch told dpa.
Brandenburg Environment Minister Axel Vogel admitted in response to a question from Stern that problems had arisen at the plant site but he did not see any danger.
Asked if he could rule out that the groundwater under the factory was contaminated, he told Stern: “I can rule it out. The monitoring is working.”
Tesla produces an estimated 250,000 vehicles a year at the Grünheide plant, which the automaker is seeking to expand.
GNA