Elon Musk continues to accumulate labor lawsuits and the latest was filed on Thursday by a group of 15 former African-American workers who accuse Tesla of allowing racial abuse and harassment in their factories, according to information released by Reuters.
In the lawsuit filed in a California state court, the plaintiff argues that they were subjected to offensive racist comments and behavior by colleagues, managers and human resources personnel.
The group of former workers belonged to the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, and they point out that words and terms such as “slavery” or “plantation” are used there or sexual comments such as “he likes booty.” The lawsuit also stated that at the plant “Standard operating procedures include blatant, open and absolute racial discrimination.”
The indictment states that one of the plaintiffs, named Teri Mitchell, was frequently harassed by co-workers and managers who used racial slurs such as: “It is rare that black people work here. I don’t know how long he will be able to work”.
Another person in the group, Nathaniel Aziel Gonsalves, mentioned that he was harassed by a supervisor, saying that “Gonsalves was not like most blacks” , who “didn’t act in the ghetto” and called him a “zebra” because he was “neither black nor white”.
There are also disagreements because some former workers were assigned to the most physically demanding positions in the electric vehicle factory or ignored for promotions.
Another case is the one that happened with Montieco Justice, a production associate at Tesla’s Fremont plant, who was demoted upon returning to the factory after taking a leave of absence due to Covid-19.
Elon Musk’s factory faces at least similar lawsuits alleging pervasive racial discrimination or sexual harassment. Recently employees of SpaceX, also owned by Musk, complained about the toxic culture in the millionaire’s company.
The company points out that “Tesla has always disciplined and fired employees who commit misconduct, including those who use racial slurs or harass others in different ways.” It also says it has put in place an additional training program that reinforces the requirement that all employees treat each other with respect, as well as having multiple ways to raise concerns, including anonymously, according to the company’s blog.
You may also like:
– Former Tesla worker rejects compensation of $15 million for racial discrimination: asks for more
– African-American lesbian woman sues Tesla for workplace harassment and not acting in the face of aggression from a colleague
– Former Tesla employees sue the company for mass dismissal