Tesla has been ordered by a federal jury to pay more than $100 million to a black former worker who claims he was subjected to a “racially hostile” work environment which the company failed to protect him from, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Owen Diaz聽worked as an elevator operator at Tesla鈥檚 Fremont, California factory for nine months from June 2015 to March 2016.
Defense attorneys claimed that the former worker had been subjected to a聽racially hostile work environment and that the company had failed to prevent him from being racially harassed. y also claimed that Tesla was negligent in its supervision or retention of an employee, thus causing harm to Diaz.
Tesla claimed it was unaware of the聽alleged discriminatory and harassing behavior towards Diaz and denied that it had failed to take action to protect black employees.
eight-person jury ultimately favored Diaz and awarded聽$130 million in punitive damages, while聽Tesla must pay $6.9 million in compensatory damages.
In a blog post published on Tesla’s website聽on Monday, the company’s聽vice president of people, Valerie Capers Workman, said the jury heard that Diaz had never actually worked for Tesla and was in fact a聽contract employee who worked for Citistaff and nextSource.
Workman noted that three other witnesses who were not Tesla contract employees had testified that they regularly heard racial slurs鈥攊ncluding the n-word鈥攂eing used at the聽Fremont factory and while they agreed it was “not appropriate” at the workplace, they felt it was being used in a “friendly manner” and typically by African-American colleagues.
No witness recalled hearing the n-word being directed specifically at Diaz, who had written complaints about the racial hostility to non-Tesla supervisors.
y also noted seeing racist graffiti in the bathrooms at the factory which was later removed by a janitor.
Workman said that Diaz also made complaints about harassment to Tesla and that the company had made sure staffing agencies had taken timely action to address the matter, which resulted in two contractors having their roles terminated, while another was suspended.
vice president said that Diaz had been “very satisfied” with the results of one of the聽investigations, and had even recommended that his son and daughter find job roles at Tesla.
“While we strongly believe that these facts don鈥檛 justify the verdict reached by the jury in San Francisco, we do recognize that in 2015 and 2016 we were not perfect. We鈥檙e still not perfect. But we have come a long way from 5 years ago. We continue to grow and improve in how we address employee concerns. Occasionally, we鈥檒l get it wrong, and when that happens we should be held accountable,”聽Workman said.
Workman also noted that Tesla has put in place specific protocols to address employee complaints, such as an聽Employee Relations team, and聽a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team to ensure equal opportunities among employees.
company has also replaced its聽Anti-Handbook Handbook with a聽comprehensive Employee Handbook with details about employee protections and policies.
“We acknowledge that we still have work to do to ensure that every employee feels that they can bring their whole self to work at Tesla…聽we will continue to remind everyone who enters the Tesla workplace that any discriminatory slurs鈥攏o matter the intent or who is using them鈥攚ill not be tolerated,”聽Workman added.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has not revealed if he has plans to appeal the verdict.
electric vehicle company is currently being sued in聽California state court by former聽assembly worker Marcus Vaughn, who made racial discrimination and harassment claims.
Pezou : Federal Jury Orders Tesla to Pay Over $130 Million to Former Worker Over Racism Claims