Tesla Is Allegedly Withholding Wages of German Employees on Sick Leave

For your information:

Germany has a system where you go to the doctor, he checks and determins if you are not able to work.

a few months ago he printed out 3 pieces of paper: 2 with and one without the diagnosis, the without goes to the employer and one of the others goes to the insurance. Currently the insurance and the part of the employer are send over the internet, since most people didn't send the part for the insurance the numbers exploded on the insurer side.

The part for the employer is just for their paperwork so they have the paperwork. The employer has to pay for 6 continous weeks the normal pay, after that an insurance that is part of the social security takes over.

If an employer has doubts about the sickness they can order the employee to go to the "Amtsarzt" an doctor employed by the local health department that checks the person and communicates with the employer that the person is unable to work or not.

in no point an employer has to know the sickness. You can tell them if you want, but you don't need to. An visit from the superiors while they are sick is also something that the employees don't have to accept.

Musk is a huge step back, just compare him with Werner von Siemens: inventor, engineer, pioneer in the application of electricity and a leading industrialist soon. Siemens realized that a successful business needed happy workers: He reduced work hours from the then standard 72 hrs/week to just 54 (on six days a week), gave boni not just to management but also to workers. In 1872, decades before a nation-wide social-security, his company introduced a pension, widower and orphan fund. No one force Siemens to do those things, Musk on the other hand actively fights against his companies' workers.