Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with former employee Owen Diaz. Mr. Diaz is a Black man who worked as an elevator operator at the company in 2015. “The parties have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes. The terms of the settlement are confidential and we will not have additional comment,” said Diaz's attorney Lawrence Organ with the California Civil Rights Law Group.
The same law firm is representing former and current Tesla employees in Marcus v. Tesla Inc., a proposed class action lawsuit alleging continued racist discrimination and worker harassment at the electric vehicle company. Tesla has also been sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The organization is also accusing Tesla of violating federal law for the company's tolerance of racist harassment of Black employees.
Diaz's lawyer Mr. Organ told CNBC today that "It took immense courage for Owen Diaz to stand up to a company the size of Tesla. Civil rights laws only work if people are willing to take those kinds of risks. Even though the litigation chapter of his life is over, there’s still a lot of work to do for Tesla." Organ continued saying "When I started this case, I suggested that the conduct would stop if Elon Musk would make a statement and a commitment to his employees that this is not tolerated. We haven’t heard that after seven years of litigation, a nine-figure verdict then a seven-figure verdict. Why isn’t he stopping this conduct? That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. Tesla is supposed to be the factory of the future. But this conduct is from the Jim Crow past."
Mr. Diaz testified in a federal court last year that his fellow workers at Tesla regularly used racist epithets to insult him as well as other Black workers claiming that it made him feel unsafe at work. Some employees allegedly told him to "go back to Africa" and tagged factory restrooms with racist graffiti.
After an original judgment in favor of Mr. Diaz to the tune of $137 million, it appears that Tesla has been able to talk the undisclosed settlement down, but the company's CEO Elon Musk's racist musings on social media highlight that the problems at the EV maker may persist. With a leader who spouts off constant racist nonsense on Twitter (currently known as X), it should come as no surprise that Tesla continues to deny any wrongdoing.