Richter lowers sum sharply
Tesla should pay $ 15 million for racism
April 14, 2022, 4:00 p.m
At a Tesla plant in California, racism against African-Americans who work there is common. In 2017, Owen Diaz sued the group, and in 2021 he was awarded compensation in the hundreds of millions. Now, however, the sum has been reduced to $15 million.
The US electric car maker Tesla has to pay a compensation of 15 million dollars (almost 14 million euros) to a former employee because of racism in the workplace. That was decided by a US judge at the District Court of San Francisco. The judge called the sum of $137 million in compensation determined by a jury in October “excessive” and therefore reduced it significantly.
Owen Diaz had already sued in 2017; from June 2015 to June 2016 he was a contract worker at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California. Afro-Americans were regularly exposed to “racist labels and derogatory language”. Tesla did not respond to complaints.
Judge William Orrick said the evidence presented was “disturbing”. The Tesla factory was “soaked” in racism. Diaz continued to be racially abused. The judge called “the N-word and other swear words”. Supervisors and management would have responded little or not at all to complaints – in fact, supervisors would have complied: They would have threatened Diaz and drawn a racist caricature near where he worked.
Authority received “hundreds of complaints”
A grand jury in October ordered Tesla to pay $130 million in punitive damages and an additional $6.9 million in “emotional suffering” damages. Judge Orrick reduced the punitive damages to $13.5 million and the amount of the suffering suffered to $1.5 million.
After the October verdict, Tesla published a post by Vice President of Human Resources Valerie Capers Workman. She admitted that when Diaz worked for Tesla, the company was “not perfect”. Two temporary employment agencies have been terminated, and cooperation with a third has been suspended.
The California Administration of Workplace and Housing Fairness (DFEH) followed up in February, suing Tesla for racism at the Fremont plant. She said she received “hundreds of complaints.” Black employees were racially insulted and discriminated against in the distribution of tasks, disciplinary measures, pay and promotions.
Racist graffiti not removed for months
According to the civil lawsuit, black employees were called “porch monkeys” — an insult that insinuates that African Americans are lazy — and used the “N-word” by co-workers and supervisors, among others. Workers with Southern flag tattoos would have exposed these black employees to intimidate them. In addition, numerous places in the factory were smeared with racist symbols such as swastikas, KKK for the Ku Klux Klan and a rope with the request to “hang” black people. Those responsible at the factory had done nothing for months to remove the graffiti.
According to the lawsuit, black employees were repeatedly provoked by racist insults. After the verbal or physical arguments that followed, they were then punished by the company. Basically, non-black workers were treated better. Among other things, they would have been assigned easier tasks.
Tesla had denied the allegations. “Tesla is strictly against all forms of discrimination and harassment,” said the company, founded by technology pioneer Elon Musk. Employees who racially insulted colleagues or harassed them in any way were always punished and fired.