Hong-Kong Economic Journal Insight
US automaker Tesla has been hit with a class-action lawsuit that alleges that the firm’s production plant in Fremont, California is a “hotbed for racist behavior”, Reuters reports.
In the lawsuit filed on Monday, a former employee named Marcus Vaughn claimed that black workers at the Tesla factory suffer harassment and racial slurs, and sought permission to bring claims on behalf of other workers affected by such treatment, according to the report.
Vaughn said in the lawsuit that he was routinely called the “n-word” by supervisors and coworkers after he began working at the factory in April.
He says he complained in writing to human resources officials, but the company never investigated his claims.
Vaughn says he was fired in October for ‘not having a positive attitude”. He is seeking unspecified damages under a California anti-discrimination law.
The lawsuit filed in California state court in Oakland is at least the third filed this year by black workers who say they were addressed using racial slurs and that Tesla ignored their complaints.
But Monday’s action was the first to bring those claims on behalf of a large class of black workers at the automaker’s Fremont factory, the report said.
Tesla is also facing lawsuits accusing it of discrimination against gay and older workers. The company has denied those claims.
The growing number of discrimination lawsuits against Tesla come as the company is also facing a unionization campaign from the United Auto Workers, Reuters noted.