By Michael Sauerbier
He was fired and uncovered dangerous grievances at the Tesla factory in Brandenburg. Nevertheless, Tayfur Karaboga (43) is now suing for continued employment at the Grünheider car factory. He gave the reason in court.
In March, Tesla terminated the electronics engineer at the end of his probationary period. “Without justification,” says trade unionist Karaboga. “I had probably pointed out health and safety deficiencies too often: electric shocks, defective machines and air conditioning systems, colleagues collapsing from exhaustion.”
In a sensational “Stern” report about work and environmental accidents at Tesla eight weeks ago, Karamboga described his experiences. But on Thursday he sued the Frankfurt (Oder) labor court against his dismissal. Why, if the factory is so terrible?
“I love Tesla,” said Karaboga in court, “that’s why I quit my secure job at VW after 20 years. I can’t go back there. And I need work so I can bring my pregnant wife here from Turkey.”
Karaboga believes that the Tesla company is not to blame for the grievances, “but two or three incompetent managers and a supervisor.”
Vain. The US company does not want to continue to employ him, the Tesla lawyer made it clear.
But Karaboga rejects a severance payment. He says: “A manager and a supervisor had offered me new positions before I quit.” Internal Teams messages would prove this. But the fired person can no longer get to it.
In this case, his expulsion would be contrary to good faith, said the judge. “You create trust in someone, they rely on it – and then it doesn’t happen.“
The court ruled that Tesla must release the Teams news. Then it wants to judge the termination.