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USAEthnicityManufacturingLatest NewsRace discrimination

Tesla faces California court fight over race discrimination

by Adam McCulloch 11 Feb 2022
by Adam McCulloch 11 Feb 2022 Tesla's Fremont plant
Photo: Shutterstock
Tesla's Fremont plant
Photo: Shutterstock

Electric car manufacturer Tesla is being sued by the US state of California for racial discrimination after a three-year investigation revealed hundreds of complaints from workers.

The state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) said it found that Tesla kept black workers in the lowest level roles in the company, and paid them less than white colleagues. It denied black workers training and promotions and disciplined them more stringently than other workers and gave black workers more physically demanding roles in the company’s plants.

There was also evidence heard by investigators that the company retaliated against black workers who formally complained to HR. Managers and other colleagues used racist slurs to intimidate black staff and ignored complaints about the use of language. There was also an incident where swastikas and other racist symbols were displayed in common areas which were not rapidly disposed of – which had first come to light after a jury award of $137m (£101m) to former worker Owen Diaz who had complained of “daily racist epithets” over a two-year period.

The department has asked the court to end unequal treatment of black employees and contractors and to pay damages to the workers and the state authorities. It also said Tesla should reinstate workers who had been dismissed on unfair grounds.

The car firm called the filing of the lawsuit “misguided” and “a narrative spun by the DFEH and a handful of plaintiff firms to generate publicity”.

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Tesla, which had previously warned investors of the looming case, claimed it had “always disciplined and terminated employees who engage in misconduct, including those who use racial slurs or harass others.”

It urged the DFEH to pause its case and seek Tesla’s side of the story, adding in a blog post, “Attacking a company like Tesla that has done so much good for California should not be the overriding aim of a state agency with prosecutorial authority.”

Although people of latino origin and Asians have also sued the company over racial discrimination, the DFEH suit is focused on people with African American heritage who worked at the Fremont vehicle assembly plant near San Francisco between 2015 and 2019.

A failure at Tesla to comply with state law and to provide standardised training to managers on how to investigate racial harassment complaints were among the DFEH’s allegations.

According to the DFEH, there are no black executives at Tesla but 20% of the factory operatives at the Fremont assembly plant were black, meaning that there was severe under-representation of black employees in more influential higher paying roles.

The Superior Court of California state will hear the case in the county of Alameda.

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Adam McCulloch
Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch first worked for Personnel Today magazine in the early 1990s as a sub editor. He rejoined Personnel Today as a writer in 2017, covering all aspects of HR but with a special interest in diversity, social mobility and industrial relations. He has ventured beyond the HR realm to work as a freelance writer and production editor in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He is also the author of KentWalksNearLondon. Adam first became interested in industrial relations after witnessing an exchange between Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian McGregor in 1984, while working as a temp in facilities at the NCB, carrying extra chairs into a conference room!

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