The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Tesla yesterday, alleging that the electric carmaker violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting Black employees at its manufacturing facilities in Fremont, California, “to severe or pervasive racial harassment and created and maintained a hostile work environment because of their race.”
The US agency also alleged that Tesla “unlawfully retaliated against Black employees who opposed actions they perceived to constitute unlawful employment discrimination.” The lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California and alleges that the discrimination has been ongoing since May 2015.
“Throughout the Relevant Period, racial slurs, chief among them, [different variations of the N-word] as well as racist epithets and race-based stereotyping permeated Tesla’s Fremont Factory subjecting Black employees to racial hostility and offenses,” the lawsuit said. “Non-Black perpetrators of the racial misconduct have worked in a variety of positions at Tesla, including as managers, supervisors, line leads, production leads, production associates, and temporary workers.”
The agency alleged that throughout the period since 2015, “Black employees also encountered displays of racist graffiti, including swastikas, threats, and nooses. They found such graffiti on a variety of surfaces, including on desks, in elevators, and on equipment, including vehicles rolling off the production lines. Black employees have described the prevalence of racist imagery as ‘frequent,’ ‘constant,’ ‘a regular thing,’ and occurring ‘too many times to count.'”
We contacted Tesla today and will update this article if we get a response.
“I saw KKK epithets, a swastika, and the N-word”
At the factory, there were allegedly racist slurs and references to the KKK “all over the walls.” The lawsuit quotes one Black worker as saying:
I saw KKK epithets, a swastika, and the N-word all over the bathroom. It was so gross and racist I don’t want to discuss it. It would say ‘kill black people,’ ‘kill N-words,’ ‘hang black people,’ ‘hang N-words.’
Describing retaliation, the US agency alleged that “Tesla has fired Black employees within weeks of them reporting or opposing racial harassment. Tesla fired one Black employee who had opposed harassment right after advising her of Tesla’s policy not to retaliate.”
After Black employees complained about racism, “Tesla’s supervisors and human resources officials retaliated against them through schedule changes, less desirable duties, reassignments, unjustified write-ups, and discharge,” the US agency said.
The agency is seeking back pay with interest and reinstatement for harmed employees, as well as punitive damages for those employees. It’s also seeking a permanent injunction to prohibit the alleged discriminatory practices and an order to “carry out policies, practices, and programs to ensure equal employment opportunities for Black employees.”
In June 2022, the EEOC issued a Letter of Determination to Tesla stating that it found “reasonable cause to believe” that Tesla had been violating the Civil Rights Act since May 29, 2015, “by subjecting Black employees who worked at its Fremont, California, facilities to a hostile work environment and by retaliating against Black employees who engaged in protected activity,” according to the lawsuit.
The EEOC said it invited Tesla to join “in informal methods of conciliation to endeavor to eliminate the unlawful employment practices and provide appropriate relief,” and provided the company an “opportunity to remedy the discriminatory practices.” But the EEOC said that Tesla would not agree to “a conciliation agreement acceptable to the Commission.”
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1972215