Tesla faces lawsuit from former employee

San Francisco, February 23

An African-American man has filed a case against Elon Musk-owned EV manufacturer Tesla alleging he was fired for reporting widespread safety violations and race discrimination at the factory.

In the lawsuit filed with Alameda County Superior Court, Marc Cage, claimed that he “witnessed and reported countless violations to dozens of Tesla personnel in various departments, including to the highest levels of the company” at Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada, reports Channel News Asia.

“Tesla’s commitments to unrealistic production goals and frantic efforts to ramp up its production, often to make good on rash promises, overrode any commitment to employee safety,” the complaint says.

He also alleged that Tesla employees denigrated and harassed him on the basis of his race.

“Virtually every restroom in Tesla Fremont facility contained writings or carvings of racist symbols and slurs, including swastikas and prominent displays of the n-word,” Cage said in his complaint.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DEFH) recently filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk-run Tesla, alleging systematic racial discrimination and harassment at its Fremont manufacturing plant in the state.

The regulatory agency said it received several complaints on workplace issues at Tesla’s Fremont factory.

“After receiving hundreds of complaints from workers, DFEH found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion creating a hostile work environment,” the agency’s director Kevin Kish said in a statement.

In a blog post, Tesla said that the lawsuit follows a three-year investigation during which the DFEH, whose mission is supposedly to protect workers, “has never once raised any concern about current workplace practices at Tesla”.

–IANS

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