An ex-Tesla manufacturing facility employee took the stand following a lawsuit he filed in opposition to the corporate for racial discrimination from mid-2015 by means of 2016. Owen Diaz, a Black former escalator employee on the Tesla manufacturing facility 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 facility.
Diaz took the stand on Wednesday and according to Reuters grew to become emotional as he testified that the hostile working surroundings made him query his price, and stated quote, “I used to be residing from paycheck to paycheck and I wanted the job.”
Diaz first filed the grievance in opposition to Tesla in 2017, claiming he was frequently addressed in methods “harking back to the best way slave house owners referred to their slaves,” the lawsuit says.
Valerie Capers Workman, Tesla’s former vice chairman of individuals, issued a statement 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 employees 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 court docket on Monday and Diaz’s lawyer informed the jury Black employees have been handled as second-class residents on the Tesla manufacturing facility. “You’ll conclude that Tesla’s conduct … is a acutely aware determination to not defend African American staff inside their office,” the lawyer, Bernard Alexander, informed 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 in opposition to on the Fremont manufacturing facility. The lawsuit was filed by the state’s Division of Truthful Employment and Housing, claiming the manufacturing facility is racially segregated and the therapy of Black staff is so insupportable that many have been pressured to give up.
Tesla stated in a statement final 12 months that nearly 50 people made claims to DFEH of racial discrimination on the Tesla manufacturing facility, however stated: “on each single event … it didn’t discover misconduct in opposition to Tesla.” The company filed a counter-lawsuit against the DFEH in September, calling the division’s grievance “misguided.”
“Attacking an organization like Tesla that has finished 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 employees and basic equity should come first.”
The corporate’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, informed the jury on Monday, that whereas racial discrimination performed on the Fremont manufacturing facility was indefensible, he stated the claims have been exaggerated and questioned whether or not Diaz had suffered psychological injury, Reuters reported. “There may be virtually no proof of something you simply heard apart 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 circumstances. Nonetheless, final 12 months, a judge significantly reduced the award to $15 million and Diaz’s legal professionals rejected the lowered quantity, as a substitute choosing a brand new trial.
Diaz’s trial is predicted to final 5 days.
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