Tesla ordered to pay $130 mn to ex-employee over racism allegations

Electric carmaker Tesla was ordered by a federal jury to pay over $130 million in damages to a Black former employee after it was found that he was subject to a racially hostile work environment, The Wall Street Journal reported.  
 
The eight-person jury on Monday also found that the company had failed to take the required steps to prevent the former worker from being harassed along racial lines.  
 
Owen Diaz, 53, used to work as an elevator operator between 2015-16 at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. He was frequently called using racial nicknames during his stint at the factory where he also witnessed racist images and words scribbled in the bathroom and other places, WSJ reported quoting Bernard Alexander, one of Diaz’s attorneys during the trial.  
 
At that time, this was the company’s sole assembly plant with a workforce of around 10,000 people. The trial lasted just over a week, and Diaz called the decision weight off his shoulders.  
 
Tesla’s attorney Tracy Kennedy argued that there was zero evidence of a Tesla employee harassing Diaz, and the company shouldn’t be held responsible for the treatment as alleged by him.
    
As per the publication, the trial was centred around three claims: Tesla subjecting Diaz to a racially hostile work environment, the company failing to prevent him from being harassed racially, and it was negligent in its supervision or retention of an employee, causing harm to Diaz.  
 
After close to four hours of deliberation, the jury found all the claims in favour of Diaz and ordered Tesla to pay $6.9 million in compensatory damages and $130 million in punitive damages.  
 
Valerie Capers Workman, Tesla’s Vice President of People, wrote about the events that transpired in court and denied allegations of Tesla not taking sufficient steps in preventing racial harassment at work.  
 
She said that the three times that Diaz did complain about harassment, Tesla had stepped in and made sure responsive and timely action was taken by the staffing agencies. Two contractors were fired, and one was suspended (who had drawn a racially offensive cartoon).  
 
“While we strongly believe that these facts don’t justify the verdict reached by the jury in San Francisco, we do recognize that in 2015 and 2016 we were not perfect,” she added.  

Edited by Akashdeep Baruah

Also read: Tesla crash-tests India’s industrial focus

Also read: Demand for Tesla pushes Norway's electric car sales