A Tesla employee receives over a million dollars in damages.
The reason is that superiors and colleagues insulted him racially.
Fremont - Tesla has to pay former employee Melvin Berry around $ 1 million in compensation for being racially insulted while on the job.
The total is made up of an attorney fee of $ 756,000 and $ 266,000 in damages.
The online portal
CBS News
reports that Berry, an African American, was hired by Tesla in 2015.
But after only 17 months, he quit his job at the automaker's factory in Fremont because of harassment.
Accordingly, his complaints that he was insulted by colleagues and superiors with the N-word were ignored.
Tesla has to pay ex-employee one million dollars: penalty for complaint
At the beginning of this year, Berry hired Jeannette Vaccaro as legal advisor. She represented him in private arbitration proceedings against Tesla. Usually, such proceedings are closed to the public, but court documents,
according to
the
CBS
report,
show
that referee Elaine Rushing believed Berry's allegations more than Tesla's denials. For example, Berry said he was forced to work longer hours and push heavier material carts after complaining to a manager about using the N-word to refer to him.
Eventually, Rushing sentenced Tesla to pay the compensation.
"No other word is so powerful or immediately evokes our country's long and brutal struggle against racism and discrimination,"
CBS News
quoted
Rushing
as saying
.
Berry's lawyer sees the outcome of the proceedings as a strong signal.
Vaccaro told
CBS News
, "We hope this ruling on a payment of over $ 1 million will spark Tesla change and send a message to all employers that there is no place for harassment and discrimination at work."
+
The Tesla factory in Fremont: Several employees complain about racism in the factory.
© Terry Schmitt / Imago
Racism at Tesla: Employees report hate symbols in the Californian plant
Berry's case is one of three racial discrimination lawsuits brought against Tesla by former employees since 2017.
In a class action lawsuit, over 100 employees allege that they were insulted with the N-word at the Fremont plant.
In addition, symbols of the Ku Klux Klan and swastikas were smeared on walls.
In the third trial, which will begin in September, a father and son claim they were subjected to ubiquitous, violent racist abuse while working at Tesla.
Racism at Tesla: automaker rejects allegations
Tesla has denied all allegations,
according to
CBS News
.
In a blog post from 2017, however, the automaker emphasized that it is “absolutely against discrimination, harassment or unfair treatment of any kind.” Every Tesla employee, without exception, must take an anti-discrimination course.
But with 33,000 employees, 10,000 of them at the Fremont plant alone, it is not humanly possible to stop bad behavior.
List of rubric lists: © Terry Schmitt / Imago