TESLA SUBJECTED BLACK EMPLOYEES TO “WIDESPREAD AND ONGOING RACIAL HARASSMENT”
Tesla – the electric car manufacturer – is alleged to have violated federal law by allowing “widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees,” and retaliating against them when they objected to the mistreatment, according to a lawsuit filed by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
From 2015 to the present, Black employees at the company’s Freemont, California, facility were “routinely” subjected to “racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping, and hostility as well as epithets such as variations of the N-word, 'monkey,' 'boy,' and 'black b*tch.'"
Believing that such conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC filed its lawsuit (EEOC v Tesla, Inc., Case No. 4:23-cv-04984) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking compensatory damages and injunctive relief.
In a written statement, EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows noted that “Combatting systemic harassment in workplaces is a key strategic enforcement priority for the EEOC. Unfortunately, as the lawsuits EEOC has filed this fiscal year show, racial harassment remains a persistent problem in employment. Every employee deserves to have their civil rights respected, and no worker should endure the kind of shameful racial bigotry our investigation revealed …. Today’s lawsuit makes clear that no company is above the law, and the EEOC will vigorously enforce federal civil rights protections to help ensure American workplaces are free from unlawful harassment and retaliation.”
Now that was electrifying ….
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