BERLIN (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s demand that Tesla (NASDAQ:) workers cease “phoning it in” and get again to the workplace acquired brief shrift from Germany’s largest commerce union on Thursday.

The Tesla chief govt waded into the way forward for work debate by telling workers on the electrical carmaker that they have to return to the workplace for at the very least 40 hours per week or go away the corporate, in response to an e-mail seen by Reuters.

The IG Metall union within the German state of Brandenburg Sachsen, the place Tesla’s plant is positioned, stated it might assist any worker who opposed Musk’s ultimatum. Tesla employs round 4,000 folks in Germany and plans to develop the workforce to 12,000.

“Whoever doesn’t agree with such one-sided calls for and needs to face towards them has the ability of unions behind them in Germany, as per legislation,” Birgit Dietze, the district chief for IG Metall in Brandenburg Sachsen, stated.

Workers at Tesla’s plant in Gruenheide, Germany, elected 19 folks to its first staff’ council in February, setting the plant other than others run by the carmaker in the US and elsewhere with out union illustration, which Musk has fiercely resisted.

Among the staff are a part of IG Metall which represents staff throughout automotive firms and different industrial sectors.

In Germany there are at the moment no legal guidelines enshrining a proper to work at home however the labour ministry is engaged on insurance policies that might enhance flexibility for staff. Many massive employers, together with automakers, have already embraced hybrid working fashions within the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which compelled firms to ship workers residence to work.

“We’ve got a basically completely different view on creating a horny working setting, and stand for empowerment and private accountability in our groups to steadiness the ratio of cellular and in-person work,” stated Gunnar Kilian, Volkswagen (ETR:) board member answerable for human assets.

Luxurious carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz echoed that view when requested about Musk’s ultimatum.

“Hybrid working is the working mannequin of the longer term… completely different varieties are doable, from full presence to predominantly distant working,” a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson stated.

Musk, who has helped shift the normal automotive sector to an all-electric future making himself the world’s richest man within the course of, had blunt phrases for firms that didn’t require workers to be again within the workplace full-time.

“There are in fact firms that do not require this, however when was the final time they shipped a terrific new product? It has been some time,” Musk wrote within the e-mail.