Apr 3rd 2023 at 5:00PMInc to pay about $3.2 million to a Black former employee after the electric-vehicle maker was found to have failed to prevent severe racial harassment at its flagship assembly plant in California.
The jury on Monday awarded Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator, $175,000 in damages for emotional distress and $3 million in punitive damages designed to punish unlawful conduct and deter it in the future. Tesla's lawyer, Alex Spiro, countered that Diaz was a confrontational worker who had exaggerated his claims of emotional distress, and said his lawyers failed to show any serious, long-lasting damage caused by Tesla.Tesla and lawyers for Diaz did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the verdict. The company has said it does not tolerate workplace discrimination and takes worker complaints seriously.
The EV maker is facing similar claims of tolerating race discrimination at the Fremont plant and other workplaces in a pending class action by Black workers, a separate case from a California civil rights agency, and multiple cases involving individual workers. The company has denied wrongdoing in those cases.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick last year agreed with the jury that Tesla had broken the law, but said the award was excessive and cut it to $15 million. The U.S. Supreme Court has said punitive damages typically should be no more than 10 times compensatory damages.
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