Biggest, Former Tesla Worker Wins Rp1.9 Trillion Lawsuit For Racial Harassment At Work

Illustration of a Tesla car manufactured at the Fremont, California plant (Wikimedia Commons/Maurizio Pesce)

JAKARTA - A former worker at the Tesla factory, Fremont, California, United States, was sentenced by a federal jury to receive compensation of US$136.9 million, or around Rp.1,950,270,555,000, for being racially harassed at work.

Owen Diaz, the plaintiff in the case, reports he regularly hears racial slurs, racist writing on factory floors, and racist graffiti in bathrooms to racially insensitive cartoons.

The verdict includes $6.9 million in punitive damages and $130 million in punitive damages. The case was decided by eight jurors in San Francisco that included one black jury, according to Lawrence Organ, Diaz's attorney.

Tesla did not respond to questions about whether it intended to appeal, which can only be filed after several post-trial motions.

Meanwhile, David Oppenheimer, a professor, and director of the Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law at the University of California Berkeley, said he believed it was the largest monetary award for a single plaintiff for racial harassment.

Illustration of a Tesla factory in Fremont, California (Wikimedia Commons/Maurizio Pesce)

"Owen Diaz stood up against one of the richest companies in the nation, the jury heard it and believed it, sending a message to Tesla that what he was doing was wrong," Organ said, citing CNN Oct.

In a blog post on the company's website Monday, the head of Tesla's human resources department said the company strongly believes "these facts do not justify the verdict."

"We realized that in 2015 and 2016 we weren't perfect. We're still not perfect," said Valerie Capers Workman, vice president of Tesla.

"But we have come a long way from 5 years ago. We continue to grow and evolve in the way we deal with employee issues," he continued.

Workman, who is also black like Diaz, wrote that there were no witnesses who said Diaz was called with racial words starting with the letter N. If anyone addressed him with that word, it was called a 'friendly' way and is commonly used by African-America colleagues.

Organ described Workman's claims about how racial epithets were used as absurd and showing a lack of sensitivity at Tesla.

Illustration of a Tesla factory in Fremont, California (Wikimedia Commons/Maurizio Pesce)

"They need to clean up their act. Our hope is this ruling will get them to wake up and do something," Organ explained.

Diaz was not directly employed by Tesla, but worked for an outside contractor at the plant in 2015 and 2016. However, the jury found that he was a joint Tesla employee and contractor.

Workman refers to Diaz in his post as an 'elevator operator'. Meanwhile, Organ said it was an attempt to reduce Diaz's work, as his duties included using forklifts to move critical parts in the factory.

Diaz, now 53, is now working as a bus driver in Oakland, Organ said.

Workman also claims Diaz didn't complain about using the n-word, until after he wasn't hired full-time by Tesla, after he hired an attorney.

He also said Diaz had previously complained about racial harassment three times, with Tesla stepping in and ensuring responsive and timely action was taken by the personnel agency to address it, resulting in two contractors being fired and one drawing a racially insensitive cartoon suspended.

However, Organ said Tesla never introduced evidence of the contractor's dismissal in court or during the discovery process. And he said a Tesla supervisor accused of harassing Diaz was not dismissed. Tesla did not comment beyond Workman's statement.

Illustration of a Tesla factory in Fremont, California (Wikimedia Commons/Maurizio Pesce)

Diaz held her head in her hands as the verdict was read, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the verdict.

"This highlights what's going on inside the Tesla factory. Elon Musk, you've been told. Clean up the factory," Diaz told the paper.

This is not the first case involving employees accusing the Fremont factory of being a racially hostile workplace.

In May Melvin Berry, a former Tesla employee, won a $1 million trial after an arbitrator found he was called a racial slur by a supervisor and subjected to other racially hostile behavior.

But Organ has also lost a case of alleged racial harassment at Tesla.

Due to the conditions of employment at Tesla, Berry was not allowed to bring court cases as Diaz was able to, but had to go through arbitration. The organ also represents the berry.

Tesla now requires that all contractors working at the plant also agree to resolve disputes through arbitration, rather than in court, Organ said.

However, he has another federal lawsuit that he is trying to certify as a class action case against Tesla that also alleges racial harassment. He said there were more than 100 victims who joined the case.