Tesla reportedly paid $ 1 million to ex-employee who said supervisors called him a racist insult

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A former Tesla employee won a million dollar award from the automaker after an arbitrator found the company failed to stop his supervisors from calling him a racial insult, Bloomberg Law reported. Melvin Berry, who is black, was hired at the Teslas factory in Alameda, Calif., In 2015. He said a supervisor called him the N word, then hit back by forcing him to work longer. and doing a more physically demanding job when Berry confronted him. Tesla has denied the allegations.

Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said in a May 12 ruling that Tesla was responsible for the harassment described by Berry, according to Bloomberg. The case law is clear that a case of a supervisor directing the N word to a subordinate is sufficient to constitute serious harassment, Rushing wrote. And, she wrote, a supervisor who wrote Berry a warning letter lacked credibility.

Tesla argued that there was no written evidence that Berry complained that supervisors called him the N word, noting that he had voluntarily left the company, according to the arbitrators’ decision.

Arbitration proceedings between employers and employees are generally kept confidential, but Bloomberg reported that Berrys ‘attorney filed a standard motion in court to enforce the arbitrators’ order, which revealed the decision. Lawyer Lawrence Organ told Bloomberg that Berry will not take further legal action since Tesla has paid the price.

Berry is not the first worker to allege racism at the Teslas Fremont factory. In 2017, former assembly worker Marcus Vaughn sued Tesla, saying the company had not investigated his written complaint that co-workers and supervisors called him the word N. Vaughn called him the Fremont factory of racist behavior. Tesla said in a statement at the time that Vaughns’ trial was a hotbed of disinformation. In April, an Alameda County judge rejected the company’s request to prevent Vaughn from seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.

An email to Tesla requesting comment did not receive an immediate response on Thursday; Tesla dissolved its press office last year and generally does not respond to media inquiries.

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