A federal jury in San Francisco has ruled that Tesla must pay $3.2 million to a former employee, Owen Diaz, in a racial harassment lawsuit. The case dates back to 2017, when Diaz, who is Black, accused the electric vehicle maker of not taking action against employees at its Fremont, California factory who were regularly using racist slurs and scrawling racist imagery on walls and work areas. Diaz had complained to managers, but the company allegedly failed to act.
In 2021, Diaz was awarded $137 million by another jury, which found Tesla liable for the harassment. However, the judge in the case said the award was excessive and ordered a new trial on damages after Diaz declined the reduced $15 million award. During the recent retrial, the jury awarded Diaz $175,000 in damages for emotional distress and $3 million in punitive damages to punish unlawful conduct and deter it in the future.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the verdict in a tweet, saying that the award would have been zero if the judge had allowed the company to introduce new evidence in the retrial. However, he added that he respected the jury’s decision and that the company did not tolerate workplace discrimination.
During closing statements, Diaz’s lawyer, Bernard Alexander, had urged the jury to award his client nearly $160 million in damages and send a message to Tesla and other large companies that they would be held accountable for failing to address discrimination. Alexander argued that Diaz’s outlook on the world had been permanently changed and that taking away a person’s safety can have serious, long-lasting consequences.
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In response, Tesla’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, countered that Diaz was a confrontational worker who exaggerated his emotional distress claims. Spiro said that Diaz’s lawyers had failed to show any severe and long-lasting damage caused by Tesla and accused them of “throwing numbers up on the screen like this is some kind of game show.”
The case highlights the ongoing issue of workplace discrimination, particularly against minority groups, and companies’ responsibility to address such behavior. The verdict clearly states that companies will be held accountable for failing to create a safe and inclusive workplace environment.