By
The Associated Press
Tesla Inc. must pay nearly $ 137 million to a former black worker who said he was subjected to racist abuse at an electric car maker's San Francisco Bay area plant.
The jury in San Francisco agreed that Owen Díaz was subjected to racist harassment and a hostile work environment.
Diaz alleged in a lawsuit that he was harassed and faced “daily racist epithets” while working at the Tesla plant in Fremont in 2015 and 2016 before resigning.
Diaz was a hired elevator operator.
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Díaz alleged that
employees drew Nazi swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the plant.
He maintained that supervisors were unable to stop the abuse.
"Tesla's progressive image was a front covering its regressive and degrading treatment of African American employees," the lawsuit says.
Diaz received $ 6.9 million in damages for emotional distress and $ 130 million in punitive damages
, his attorney, Lawrence A. Organ, told The Washington Post.
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"It took four long years to get to this point,
" Diaz told The New York Times.
"It's as if a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
"It is a great thing when one of the richest corporations in the United States has to take into account the abominable conditions in its factory for black people," Organ, of the Civil Rights Law Group of California, told the aforementioned newspaper.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., comes to court during SolarCity's trial in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
It was not immediately clear whether Tesla would appeal the decision.
An email from The Associated Press news agency asking Tesla for comment was not immediately returned Monday night.
However,
Tesla previously denied knowledge of the alleged racist conduct at the plant
, which has about 10,000 workers.
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If confirmed, the payment would be a blow to a company that has been the subject of multiple allegations of workplace problems, but requires employees to resolve disputes through binding arbitration, which the company has rarely lost.
In May, an arbitrator ordered Tesla to pay more than $ 1 million for similar allegations
by another former Fremont factory worker.
That employee alleged that his co-workers gave him racist insults and that his supervisors ignored his complaints.
Díaz, who was hired through a staffing agency, did not have to sign an arbitration agreement.
