Tesla accused of racial discrimination in California suit
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was accused of discrimination and harassment of black employees by the state of California in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed the suit after complaints from "hundreds of workers" at the San Francisco area factory, the AP reported.
Department head Kevin Kish said it "found evidence that Teslaâs 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," according to the AP.
In a blog posted before the suit was filed, Tesla said the department "has never once raised any concern about current workplace practices at Tesla. Rather, the lawsuit appears focused on alleged misconduct by production associates at the Fremont factory that took place between 2015 and 2019."
"Over the past five years, the DFEH has been asked on almost 50 occasions by individuals who believe they were discriminated against or harassed to investigate Tesla," the company added. "On every single occasion, when the DFEH closed an investigation, it did not find misconduct against Tesla. It therefore strains credibility for the agency to now allege, after a three-year investigation, that systematic racial discrimination and harassment somehow existed at Tesla."
TSLA is down 0.6% in premarket trading.
Earlier this week, Tesla received a subpoena from the SEC over an alleged 2018 settlement violation.