Tesla announces new steps to make Fremont factory ‘the safest car factory in the world’ - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]October, Tesla hired Laurie Shelby from Alcoa to oversee all aspect of environment, health and safety throughout the automaker’s workforce. ... But Tesla has acknowledged a higher than desired injury rate last year and now Shelby gives an update on the metric in a new blog post: “The traditional workplace safety metric is Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). Based on the data through the end of the year, Tesla’s 2017 recordable incident rate at the Fremont Factory has improved nearly 25% percent from 2016 and is now equivalent to the most recent published industry average. This is obviously still not where we want to be, but I’m extremely confident that we will be below industry average in 2018. When I look closely at our 2017 data, a few things stand out.” ... Shelby wrote: “We’ve also taken our learnings from Model S and Model X and applied them to those working on Model 3. Tesla’s ergonomics team was heavily involved in the development of Model 3, for example, using a virtual reality program to study the exact movements that would be used when building the car. This massively improved ergonomics on the Model 3 assembly line by reducing potential stresses and strains – even before production started. This has already had a major positive impact and will be seen more broadly as we continue to ramp Model 3 production.” She also announced several other measures to improve health and safety since taking over the role at Tesla, including a new ‘Return to Work program’ to help employees recover from an injury, a new training center, a new in-house medical director, and more.[/QUOTE] [url]https://electrek.co/2018/02/04/tesla-fremont-safest-car-factory/[/url] [QUOTE]Helping Our Workforce When Injuries Do Occur When injuries do happen, we must make sure we’re taking good care of our people, which is why we’ve taken a major step forward with our workplace injury Return to Work program. When an employee is injured at Tesla and unable to perform their normal duties, work restrictions are put in place. In our previous program, when the injured worker was not able to continue working in their regular department, they were assigned to a less demanding job to help accommodate their injury so they can recover. In that situation, the employee was paid the wage that was associated with that new job and they could collect disability or workers compensation payments through our insurance provider to help fill the gap. This is typical across the industry, but not good enough. In our new program, even an injured employee who comes back to work in a less demanding role will have their pay remain the same. And if Tesla is unable to accommodate an injured employee within the company, we’re now temporarily placing them with non-profits and local organizations like YMCA, libraries or food pantries where they can help the community and receive their regular compensation.[/QUOTE] [url]https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/blog/becoming-safest-car-factory-world?redirect=no[/url]

"we’re now temporarily placing them with non-profits and local organizations like YMCA, libraries or food pantries where they can help the community and receive their regular compensation." but what if they can't even move when theyre so injured? these workers should get paid leave for the entirety of their injury! its a good attempt but not good enough. if tesla wants to appear to not be the awful company it is (read testimonies of ex and current workers) then the above is the right way forward.

[QUOTE=angrytoiletry;53109320]"we’re now temporarily placing them with non-profits and local organizations like YMCA, libraries or food pantries where they can help the community and receive their regular compensation." but what if they can't even move when theyre so injured? these workers should get paid leave for the entirety of their injury! its a good attempt but not good enough. if tesla wants to appear to not be the awful company it is (read testimonies of ex and current workers) then the above is the right way forward.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]injury [B]Return to Work[/B] program.[/QUOTE] If they are too ill to work then I expect that would be covered by injury leave rather than a return to work program.

i pass by the tesla building on the highway from time to time and it's fucking massive.

People will find a way to get hurt...

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;53109572]People will find a way to get hurt...[/QUOTE] As a lifelong arsehole who loves a bit of time off: No they fucking won't. Nobody's going to stick their hand in a lathe, get maimed for life, have to pay healthcare costs, deal with pain and suffering etc for a couple days sick leave. Not least when sick pay (which isn't even mandatory in the US IIRC) is below the average rate of pay in most countries.

[QUOTE=Chris Morris;53109971]As a lifelong arsehole who loves a bit of time off: No they fucking won't. Nobody's going to stick their hand in a lathe, get maimed for life, have to pay healthcare costs, deal with pain and suffering etc for a couple days sick leave. Not least when sick pay (which isn't even mandatory in the US IIRC) is below the average rate of pay in most countries.[/QUOTE] I don't think that's what he meant at all. No matter how safe you make something, eventually someone will hurt himself. If you make something idiot proof, someone will just make a better idiot.

I live in Fremont and everyone, including me, knows someone who works there or knows someone who knows someone who works there and the problem is that they work people too hard to meet their deadlines. One of our alumni gave a presentation to us math majors and she told us that one of her friends quit from Tesla 3 times because the conditions were so awful but they needed them so badly they kept begging them to come back with a drastically increased salary. Pretty much nobody here wants to work there but they keep applying and working there for a few years to improve their resume so they can work at a place that doesn't suck ass.

[QUOTE=Dr.C;53110105]I live in Fremont and everyone, including me, knows someone who works there or knows someone who knows someone who works there and the problem is that they work people too hard to meet their deadlines. One of our alumni gave a presentation to us math majors and she told us that one of her friends quit from Tesla 3 times because the conditions were so awful but they needed them so badly they kept begging them to come back with a drastically increased salary. Pretty much nobody here wants to work there but they keep applying and working there for a few years to improve their resume so they can work at a place that doesn't suck ass.[/QUOTE] so much for the great elon musk

[QUOTE=joost1120;53109987]I don't think that's what he meant at all. No matter how safe you make something, eventually someone will hurt himself. If you make something idiot proof, someone will just make a better idiot.[/QUOTE] I realized that at work after I reflected on what he said, my bad. Still doesn't preclude the need to improve industrial safety though. If you CAN make something safer, why shouldn't you? Surely negating any risk to human life is always a good thing?

[QUOTE=_Chewgum;53110196]so much for the great elon musk[/QUOTE] Musk is a businessman, not some sort of magical savior. He might do some cool and neat shit but ultimately he is just another businessman and the cult of personality he has around him is amazing marketing for himself.

I wonder if part of this would involve letting the workers unionise? I wouldn't trust any businessman to make decisions about worker safety without any input or pressure from workers themselves.