With all the praise bestowed upon Tesla and Elon Musk for all of their achievements, the news that three ex-employees are filing a legal suit against the company over racism is somewhat surprising. The three black employees said that the company is a hostile environment for black employees because other workers, including supervisors, used racial epithets and drew racist graffiti on cardboard boxes.
A Tesla spokesman denied the allegations made by the ex-employees and said that they hadn’t raised concerns with the company, he went on to say:
“Given our size, we recognise that unfortunately at times there will be cases of harassment or discrimination in corners of the company … From what we know so far, this does not seem to be such a case.”
In the latest suit, Owen Diaz, and his son, Demetric Diaz, were allegedly referred to by a derogatory term while working at the Fremont factory in California - supervisors were accused of doing little to stop the harassment. The other worker involved, Lamar Patterson, said he has also been the target of racist remarks.
This is apparently not the first time this year that black employees are challenging Tesla. The company also has a hearing due with the National Labor Relations Board over allegations that it tried to shut down attempts by employees trying to promote a labour union. The newest case shows that Tesla is so far failing to stop racism within the company.
Source: The Mercury News