Austin-based EV maker Tesla has reached a settlement to resolve a case involving racial discrimination.
In 2015, a federal jury awarded Owen Diaz, a black elevator operator at the Fremont, California plant, $3.2 million in damages.
Attorney Lawrence Organ of the California Civil Rights Law Group stated that the parties have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes through email. “The settlement terms are confidential, and we will have no further comment,” he added.
Organ expressed frustration that despite years of litigation, significant verdicts, and suggestions for Elon Musk to address the issue, Tesla has not stopped its unacceptable conduct toward Black employees. In a separate lawsuit, Tesla was accused of breaking federal law by “tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees and by subjecting some of these workers to retaliation for opposing the harassment,” according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In 2023, Diaz testified in a San Francisco federal court about the racist treatment he and other Black workers endured at Tesla. His colleagues used racist nicknames, made him feel physically unsafe, and left racist graffiti and a drawing in his workspace resembling a racially offensive cartoon character. Despite encouraging his son to work at Tesla, Diaz regretted it as his son also faced racial hostility. After initially winning a $137 million verdict, later reduced to $15 million, Diaz secured a $3.2 million verdict in his retrial against Tesla for failing to address racist discrimination adequately.
On March 15, Organ spoke with CNBC over the phone and stated, “It took tremendous bravery for Owen Diaz to stand up to a company the size of Tesla.” Civil rights laws succeed only when people are prepared to take such risks. Tesla still has a lot of work to do, even though the legal chapter of his life is over.
Tesla settled with Diaz amidst criticism of Elon Musk’s handling of hate speech on X, formerly Twitter, which he owns and operates as CTO. Musk has faced backlash for sharing unverified claims of cannibalism in Haiti and posts smearing Haitian migrants as potential cannibals. Critics have also condemned Musk for retweeting race scientists and spreading misinformation about racial minorities.
