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Tesla
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US electric vehicle and energy company led by Elon Musk. Website ↗
Documented facts (3)
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Tesla, alleging that since at least May 2015 Black workers at its Fremont factory were routinely subjected to racial slurs, including "monkey", "boy" and the n-word, and to racist graffiti including swastikas, threats and nooses, and that workers who complained faced retaliation.
Response: Tesla did not immediately comment; it has previously said it "is absolutely against any form of discrimination, harassment or unfair treatment of any kind".
California's civil rights agency (then DFEH, now the Civil Rights Department) sued Tesla after a roughly three-year investigation, alleging systemic harassment, segregation, pay discrimination and retaliation against Black workers at its Fremont factory, including racial slurs and the factory being called the "plantation". In May 2026 the Alameda County Superior Court denied Tesla's latest attempt to have the case thrown out, and a bench trial before Judge Peter Borkon opened in Oakland on 21 September 2026.
Response: Tesla denies wrongdoing, says it "does not tolerate discrimination" and has fired workers found to have engaged in misconduct; it called the suit politically motivated and accused the agency of using "underground regulations".
- 4 Oct 2021Racism
A federal jury in San Francisco found that Owen Diaz, a Black contract worker at its Fremont factory in 2015-2016 whom the jury found to be a joint employee of Tesla and the staffing contractor, had been subjected to a racially hostile workplace, including racial slurs such as the n-word and racist graffiti, and awarded him $136.9 million ($6.9 million compensatory, $130 million punitive). The judge later cut the award to $15 million; Diaz chose a retrial, which ended in a $3.2 million verdict in April 2023, and the parties settled in March 2024.
Response: Tesla's vice president of people, Valerie Capers Workman, wrote that "these facts don't justify the verdict" while acknowledging "in 2015 and 2016 we were not perfect. We're still not perfect".