Tesla has had a rocky relationship with the state of California. The company was founded in the state 20 years ago but recent feuds between CEO Elon Musk and California politicians lead Musk to move his headquarters to Texas. While Tesla has moved on from California, California has not moved on from Tesla and is suing the company for alleged racial discrimination.
A discrimination lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The agency said that this suit came after a number of complaints from former employees. The department said that they, “found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion creating a hostile work environment,” in a statement from department head Kevin Kish. It seems as though Tesla saw this suit coming, as they published a statement criticizing the lawsuit calling it “unfair and counterproductive”. Tesla says that the Department of Fair Employment and Housing looked into almost 50 reports of allegations of discrimination over the last five years but found no evidence.
Tesla has been heavily scrutinized by the California government in recent years. The company was criticized for poor treatment of its 10,000 workers at its Fremont factory. Last October, a black employee who had worked as an elevator operator was awarded $137 million in damages after he said he experienced racial slurs and harassment during his employment between the years 2015 and 2016.
Tesla left because they did not want to deal with the massive regulations and oversight they experienced while working in California. Even after their departure, they still can not get the California government off their back.
Photo Cred: REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
