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A California state agency is suing Tesla in a lawsuit that became public on Thursday, accusing it of allowing racial discrimination and harassment to flourish at its San Francisco Bay Area factory.
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing said hundreds of Tesla employees reported being subjected to racist graffiti and widespread use of racial slurs, including by supervisors. They also accused the company of discriminatory practices. The agency said Black employees were assigned to more physically demanding jobs and were more often refused transfers and promotions than other employees.
“After receiving hundreds of complaints from workers, DFEH found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory was a racially segregated workplace where Black workers were subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay and promotion, creating a hostile work environment,” Kevin Kish, division manager, said in a statement. “The facts of this case speak for themselves.”
In statement posted online On Wednesday, before the lawsuit was filed, Tesla said it “strongly opposes” any form of discrimination and harassment. The company denounced the lawsuit, arguing that the government agency had investigated dozens of previous allegations in recent years and found no misconduct.
“Therefore, after a three-year investigation, claiming that some form of systematic racial discrimination and harassment exists at Tesla challenges the agency’s credibility,” the company said. “A publicity narrative by DFEH and a handful of plaintiff firms is not real evidence.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Tesla said the Fremont factory had a “majority workforce” and described the case as “adverse effect at a time when manufacturing jobs were leaving California.” Company moved its headquarters went to Texas last year and opened a new factory in the Austin area.
Tesla also said that the California agency denied requests for information on the charges. The company plans to ask the court to stop the case and take further steps to ensure the facts and evidence are heard.
In October, a federal jury in San Francisco $137 million prize To a black former Tesla employee who said he was subjected to racial abuse by a supervisor and other colleagues while working at the Fremont factory in 2015 and 2016. Employees had drawn swastikas, scribbled a racist adjective, and left drawings of derogatory cartoons on a bathroom counter. “Black boys around the factory,” he said.
The following month, another Tesla employee, Jessica Barraza, sued the company, accusing it of allowing widespread sexual harassment, both verbal and physical. In December, six more women sued the company, citing similar treatment.
Last month, Valerie Capers Workman, one of Tesla’s top Black executives, He left the company. As head of human resources at Tesla, Ms. Workman was often the face of her response to such cases.
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