Wednesday, October 06, 2021

Tesla Ordered to Pay More Than $130 Million in Damages to Black Former Worker

Is this not extremely excessive for only a single person who was allegedly subjected for only 9 consecutive months to a "racially hostile environment" at the company! It seems absurd! This was a federal trial with 8 jury members? I hope, appeal is available to the company. I hope, the company will continue to fight this order and will appeal!

Ah, it was a San Francisco federal court! Is this some form of progressive justice? A kangaroo court executed a show trial?

In my opinion, already a $1 million order would be on the border of excessive in such a case!

"... Diaz’s lawsuit alleged that employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the Tesla plant. [Did he draw these graffiti himself?] He also alleged that employees often used the “N-word” [where these employees black American? Quite possible!] and other racist epithets. ...
The jury awarded Diaz $6.9 million in damages for emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages, according to his attorney, Lawrence Organ of the California Civil Rights Law Group. ...
In court, Tesla’s attorneys argued that it investigated and resolved all incidents reported by Diaz and that it did not intend to disregard the rights and concerns of black workers at the plant.
It’s a rare instance in which Tesla ... has had to publicly defend itself in court against a former worker. ...
Private [mandatory] arbitration often lets companies avoid costly damages or commit to major corrective action. Tesla rarely takes a big hit in arbitration, though it did pay a $1 million award in May in a case brought by another ex-contractor that was similar to Diaz’s. ...
“In addition to Mr. Diaz, three other witnesses (all non-Tesla contract employees) testified at trial that they regularly heard racial slurs (including the n-word) on the Fremont factory floor. While they all agreed that the use of the n-word was not appropriate in the workplace, they also agreed that most of the time they thought the language was used in a ‘friendly’ manner and usually by African-American colleagues,” she wrote."

"... There was no witness testimony or other evidence that anyone ever heard the n-word used toward Mr. Diaz. ...
Mr. Diaz made written complaints to his non-Tesla supervisors. Those were well-documented in the nine months he worked at our factory. But he didn’t make any complaints about the n-word until after he was not hired full-time by Tesla – and after he hired an attorney. ...
The three times that Mr. Diaz did complain about harassment, Tesla stepped in and made sure responsive and timely action was taken by the staffing agencies: two contractors were fired and one was suspended (who had drawn a racially offensive cartoon). Mr. Diaz himself testified that he was “very satisfied” with the results of one of the investigations, and he agreed that there was follow-up on each of his complaints.
Even though Mr. Diaz now complains about racial harassment at Fremont, at the time he said he was being harassed, he recommended to his son and daughter – while they were all living together in the same home – that they work at Tesla with him. ..."

Tesla Ordered to Pay More Than $130 Million in Damages to Black Former Worker - WSJ The company subjected the employee to a racially hostile work environment, jury finds


No comments: