Tesla ordered to pay ex-worker $ 137 million for racism at factory

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Tesla Inc. has lost a case brought by a former black elevator operator and is due to pay him $ 137 million for turning a blind eye to the racial taunts and offensive graffiti he suffered at the car manufacturing plant electrics from northern California, according to the man’s lawyer.

A federal jury in San Francisco ruled on Monday that Owen Diaz, a former contractor hired in 2015 through a recruitment agency, was subjected to a racist work environment, said Lawrence Organ, lawyer for Diaz. The verdict could not be immediately confirmed in electronic court records.

The Diaz case marked a rare case in which Tesla, who typically uses compulsory arbitration to resolve employee disputes, had to defend himself in a public trial. The company hardly ever loses workplace arbitrations, despite being awarded $ 1 million in compensation in May in a case brought by another former worker similar to Diazs.

The outcome of the lawsuits may embolden activist shareholders who have pushed Tesla’s board of directors, so far unsuccessfully, to adopt more transparency about its use of arbitration to resolve complaints of sexual harassment and racial discrimination . The board urges investors to reject such a proposal at a shareholder meeting on October 7, even as other major Silicon Valley companies, including Alphabet Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., have backed down. the use of compulsory arbitration.

Tesla and his lawyer, Tracey Kennedy, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tesla argued that he never intended to disregard the rights and safety of black workers placed by the recruiting agency and that all incidents reported by Diaz were investigated and resolved.

In closing arguments before the jury, Kennedy said, Mr. Diaz’s story just doesn’t make sense in light of his encouragement to his son and daughter to take a job with the company. She also said that Diaz’s claims were not supported by the evidence.

J. Bernard Alexander III, an attorney for Diaz, told jurors that unlike a zero tolerance policy, Tesla had a zero liability policy.

The N word was ubiquitous and practically everywhere, Alexander said. He ended his closing remarks with a quote from The Hill We Climb, a poem by Amanda Gorman, the 23-year-old poet who moved the nation during President Biden’s inauguration in January. To be American is to step into the past and how we fix it, Alexander said.

Diaz testified that he suffered sleepless nights and weight loss as he lost his appetite.

Some days I would sit on my stairs and cry, he told the jury.

The jury prize included $ 6.9 million for emotional distress and $ 130 million in punitive damages, according to Diaz’s other attorney, Organ.

Organ said he hoped the move would encourage Tesla to conduct a reassessment so that none of his other black employees undergo similar treatment. The jury’s verdict sends a message to one of the richest companies in the world that it must treat all of its employees with dignity and respect, he said.

Organ was also part of the team representing Melvin Berry, a former black employee who won the million dollar arbitration award over allegations the company failed to bar its supervisors at its Fremont, plant in California, to call it the N word.

Tesla faces another case with similar charges that is unfolding as a class action lawsuit in California state court in Oakland.

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