{"id":46198,"date":"2024-03-16T21:59:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T21:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/tesla-settles-discrimination-suit-with-former-factory-worker\/"},"modified":"2024-03-16T21:59:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T21:59:20","slug":"tesla-settles-discrimination-suit-with-former-factory-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/tesla-settles-discrimination-suit-with-former-factory-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Settles Discrimination Suit With Former Factory Worker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tesla and a former employee have agreed to settle a closely watched lawsuit that cast a harsh light on the carmaker\u2019s treatment of Black workers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawyers for Tesla and for Owen Diaz, who worked at the company\u2019s factory in Fremont, Calif., did not disclose the terms of the settlement in a legal filing on Friday. \u201cThe parties have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes,\u201d Lawrence A. Organ, a lawyer for Mr. Diaz, said in an email, adding that he could not comment further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, a jury in federal court in San Francisco awarded Mr. Diaz $3.2 million after he presented evidence that he had been subject to repeated harassment by supervisors at Tesla\u2019s factory, including being addressed with a racial slur more than 30 times. A supervisor drew a racist caricature near his work station, according to testimony in the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tesla did little to discipline the supervisors or address pervasive racism at the factory, the jury found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Diaz appealed, saying that $3.2 million was insufficient compensation for the psychological damage he suffered, including loss of sleep, depression and damaged relations with his wife and son. Mr. Diaz\u2019s lawyers also argued that the award was not sufficient to punish Tesla for failing to stop the harassment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the second trial in the case. In the first, in 2021, jurors awarded Mr. Diaz $137 million, but a judge ruled that the amount was excessive. The second trial last year dealt solely with the amount Mr. Diaz should receive in damages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a decision last year, Judge William H. Orrick of U.S. District Court said, \u201cTesla\u2019s conduct was reprehensible and repeated, and it failed to take responsibility or change its ways during Diaz\u2019s time at the company.\u201d But he ruled that $3.2 million was adequate compensation. Mr. Diaz\u2019s appeal of that ruling was pending when he and Tesla agreed to settle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In court filings, Tesla lawyers denied that the company had failed to respond to the harassment. \u201cTesla had clear official policies barring racially discriminatory harassment and did not condone, permit, allow or tolerate such conduct,\u201d Tesla lawyers wrote last year. They did not respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tesla and a former employee have agreed to settle a closely watched lawsuit that cast a harsh light on the carmaker\u2019s treatment of Black workers. Lawyers for Tesla and for Owen Diaz, who worked at the company\u2019s factory in Fremont, Calif., did not disclose the terms of the settlement in a legal filing on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}