Tesla sued for racism in the workplace: ‘Monkey sounds, n-word and graffiti including noose’ | Abroad

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was already investigating Tesla, the automaker subjected employees to “severe or pervasive racial harassment.” Furthermore, Tesla is said to have treated employees who filed a complaint unfairly.

In the complaint, the commission claims that Tesla’s mistreatment of black workers at its Fremont factory began as early as 2015. She said non-black employees repeatedly made racist comments and monkey noises, while managers sometimes “addressed black employees individually and collectively with N-words.” In addition, workers also encountered racist graffiti, including nooses and swastikas, on desks, elevators and vehicles rolling off the production line.

Tesla and the EEOC conducted “mandatory mediation” in June 2023 but were unable to resolve the issues. According to news agency Bloomberg, the Equal Opportunity Commission is urging the court in Oakland to stop Tesla from subjecting black employees to racism and retaliation and from promoting a hostile environment.

It also wants damages to compensate workers for emotional distress and loss of livelihood due to late payments or by allowing them to return to their jobs.

It would not be the first time that Tesla has been criticized for racism. For example, a former employee of the manufacturer previously received nearly $3.2 million in damages due to the racist work environment he faced in 2015 and 2016. For example, he regularly received racist comments and the ‘n-word’ was also used several times.

There is another case against Tesla in which the company is accused of ‘rampant racism’ by a human rights organization from California. That also claims Tesla turned a blind eye to years of complaints about racist comments at the same factory where the electric carmaker produces the Model S, X, 3 and Y. Tesla argued in court that the state exceeded its legal authority and “used lawsuits as a bullying tactic and to further the war with the Equal Opportunity Commission.” This California case, filed last year, is pending in federal court.

Rampant racism and discrimination at the electric carmaker’s plant in the San Francisco Bay Area was called out by 240 Black factory workers. This included the frequent use of racist comments and references to the production location as a plantation or slave ship.

The testimony, filed in late June in Alameda County Superior Court, comes from contractors and employees who worked on the production floor of the Fremont plant, about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco. The vast majority worked at the site between 2016 and now.

Lawyers representing Tesla, Inc. suing, saying it is seeking a so-called class action lawsuit and estimating that at least 6,000 employees could be part of the class action.

The individual testimonies are part of a 2017 lawsuit filed by Marcus Vaughn, who complained in writing to human resources and Tesla CEO Elon Musk about a hostile work environment in which he was verbally abused by colleagues and executives. No investigation was conducted and he was fired because he “didn’t have a positive attitude,” his lawyers said.

Bryan Schwartz, one of Vaughn’s attorneys, said the case has dragged on for years as Tesla tried to force the lawsuit into arbitration. Instead, in April, the California Supreme Court allowed black employees to apply to the court for a public injunction that would require Tesla to change its work environment.

“It’s disgusting to have this level of blatant harassment here in Silicon Valley,” Schwartz said, adding that it’s shocking that “Tesla has allowed this kind of pervasive harassment to continue as long as it has lasted.”