Because of racial harassment
Tesla has to pay compensation to ex-employees
4/4/2023 8:31 am
A “plantation mentality” is said to prevail at the Tesla location in California. That’s how the lawyers of Owen Diaz, who was racially insulted there as an employee, see it. Because the carmaker had not done anything about the incidents, Diaz is now due to pay millions in compensation.
Electric car maker Tesla has been ordered by a US court to pay a former employee $3.2 million for unrestrained racial harassment at its California plant. The jury awarded Owen Diaz, an African-American man who worked as an elevator operator, damages for mental cruelty, the verdict said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Diaz would not have received compensation if the judge had admitted new evidence from the company when the case was retried. “The jury did the best they could with the information they had. I respect the decision.” The company said it would not tolerate discrimination in the workplace and would take employee complaints seriously.
Diaz accused Tesla of inaction in 2017 when he repeatedly complained to managers that employees at the Fremont plant routinely used racist language and daubed swastikas, racist caricatures and comments on walls in his work area.
At the court hearing, Diaz also said he regrets encouraging his son to work at Tesla because he was exposed to a racist workplace there. “No black man should ever be subjected to this plantation mentality in the workplace,” plaintiff’s attorneys addressed the jury in their closing argument, demanding damages that caught Tesla’s attention.
It was actually awakened in 2021. Diaz was awarded $137 million in this case two years ago by another court. A judge in the retrial described the sum as excessive. Diaz then declined the reduced $15 million award.