Tesla to pay former worker $3.2m over racism case

Tesla was earlier ordered in October 2021 to pay the worker $137m in damages for turning a blind eye to racism

A San Francisco jury ordered electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla to pay $3.2m to a Black man in a racial harassment lawsuit.

The federal jury found that the man, Owen Diaz, who worked as a lift operator at Tesla’s Fremont factory from 2015 to 2016, was subjected to a “racially hostile work environment”.

Mr Diaz previously said the company didn’t take action against racism in the workplace, where his son also worked.

He said a supervisor and other employees at the factory frequently used racial slurs, drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the plant.

“[I] had supervisors telling me, ‘N****r, hurry up and push the button’, ‘N****r, push these batteries out of the elevator.’ And they were also telling me, ‘N*****s aren’t shit,’” he said.

Tesla was earlier ordered in October 2021 to pay Mr Diaz $137m in damages for turning a blind eye to racism.

In his ruling, US District Court Judge William Orrick then slashed the damages down to $15m, but upholding last year’s verdict.

“The jury heard that the Tesla factory was saturated with racism. Mr Diaz faced frequent racial abuse, including the N-word and other slurs,” the judge wrote in April last year.

“His supervisors, and Tesla’s broader management structure, did little or nothing to respond. And supervisors even joined in on the abuse, one going so far as to threaten Mr Diaz and draw a racist caricature near his workstation,” he said.

While the original award comprised $130m in punitive damages and $6.9m for emotional distress, Mr Orrick cut this down to $13.5m in punitive damages and $1.5m for emotional harm, calling it “the maximum amount supportable by proof”.

This prompted Mr Diaz to challenge the amount in a new trial, but instead of getting more money, the former worker would get less.

The jury on Monday has awarded him $3m in punitive damages and $175,000 in damages for emotional distress.

“The prevalence of the use of the N-word inside of Tesla’s workplace is an indication that they did not care about how their African American employees felt,” one of Mr Diaz’s lawyers said in a closing argument in the latest trial, according to the New York Times.

Tesla’s lawyers reportedly argued that Mr Diaz had overstated the extent of the racial harassment he faced, adding that his lawyers failed to show any serious long-lasting damage was caused by Tesla.

Mr Musk tweeted that if Tesla had been allowed to introduce new evidence, “the verdict would’ve been zero imo”.

“Jury did the best they could with the information they had. I respect the decision,” the multibillionaire said.