Tesla to pay $137m to former employee over racism at work
Al Jazeera
Former contract worker hired through a staffing agency was subjected to racially hostile work environment, a jury said.
Tesla Inc. lost a trial with a Black former elevator operator and must pay him $137 million for having turned a blind eye to racial taunts and offensive graffiti he endured at the electric-car maker’s northern California plant, according to the man’s lawyer.
Owen Diaz, a former contract worker hired in 2015 through a staffing agency, was subjected to a racially hostile work environment, a federal jury in San Francisco decided Monday, said Lawrence Organ, a lawyer for Diaz. The verdict couldn’t immediately be confirmed in electronic court records.
Diaz’s case marked a rare instance in which Tesla, which typically uses mandatory arbitration to resolve employee disputes, had to defend itself in a public trial. The company almost never loses workplace arbitrations, though it was hit with a $1 million award in May in a case brought by another ex-worker that was similar to Diaz’s.
