An ex-Tesla manufacturing unit employee took the stand following a lawsuit he filed towards the corporate for racial discrimination from mid-2015 by way of 2016. Owen Diaz, a Black former escalator employee on the Tesla manufacturing unit in Fremont, California claims he was subjected to racially discriminatory feedback and actions from his coworkers over the 9 months he labored on the firm’s manufacturing unit.
Diaz took the stand on Wednesday and based on Reuters grew to become emotional as he testified that the hostile working surroundings made him query his value, and stated quote, “I used to be residing from paycheck to paycheck and I wanted the job.”
Diaz first filed the grievance towards Tesla in 2017, claiming he was recurrently addressed in methods “harking back to the best way slave homeowners referred to their slaves,” the lawsuit says.
Valerie Capers Workman, Tesla’s former vp of individuals, issued an announcement in October 2021, saying that Diaz was a contract employee for Citistaff, not a Tesla worker. She additionally stated whereas witnesses testified that they heard using “racial slurs (together with the n-word),” they have been utilized by staff in a “pleasant” method and claimed two contractors have been fired and one was suspended in response to Diaz’s racial discrimination claims.
The trial started in San Francisco federal courtroom on Monday and Diaz’s lawyer advised the jury Black staff have been handled as second-class residents on the Tesla manufacturing unit. “You’ll conclude that Tesla’s conduct … is a acutely aware choice to not defend African American staff inside their office,” the lawyer, Bernard Alexander, advised the jury, Reuters reported.
Diaz’s trial will get underway as Tesla faces a separate class-action lawsuit in California from former staff who equally declare they have been racially discriminated towards on the Fremont manufacturing unit. The lawsuit was filed by the state’s Division of Honest Employment and Housing, claiming the manufacturing unit is racially segregated and the therapy of Black staff is so insupportable that many have been compelled to stop.
Tesla stated in a assertion final yr that just about 50 people made claims to DFEH of racial discrimination on the Tesla manufacturing unit, however stated: “on each single event … it didn’t discover misconduct towards Tesla.” The corporate filed a counter-lawsuit towards the DFEH in September, calling the division’s grievance “misguided.”
“Attacking an organization like Tesla that has performed a lot good for California shouldn’t be the overriding purpose of a state company with prosecutorial authority,” Tesla stated within the assertion. “The pursuits of staff and elementary equity should come first.”
The corporate’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, advised the jury on Monday, that whereas racial discrimination carried out on the Fremont manufacturing unit was indefensible, he stated the claims have been exaggerated and questioned whether or not Diaz had suffered psychological injury, Reuters reported. “There’s virtually no proof of something you simply heard aside from a lawyer saying it occurred eight years later,” Spiro stated.
A jury awarded Diaz $137 million in damages throughout a 2021 trial, making it one of many largest in U.S. historical past for office discrimination instances. Nonetheless, final yr, a decide considerably decreased the award to $15 million and Diaz’s legal professionals rejected the decreased quantity, as an alternative choosing a brand new trial.
Diaz’s trial is anticipated to final 5 days.
