The California court has preliminarily allowed employees to file a class action lawsuit against Tesla for racism - the hearing is scheduled for October 2024.
As noted by Bloomberg, the complaint was first filed in 2017 by Marcus Vaughn, who claimed that the Tesla factory in Fremont was a "breeding ground for racist behavior." The company allegedly "created a hostile and offensive work environment for dark-skinned and/or African American workers, which includes regular use of the words 'N****r' and 'N***' and other racist derogatory terms," and the human resources department "ignored the complaints."
Tesla initially responded to the lawsuit with a blog post, calling it a "disinformation campaign." The company denied any wrongdoing and stated that it had fired three people after investigating alleged racist incidents.
If the case does go to court (Tesla could have appealed the decision until today), the process will be divided into two phases: during the first phase, the jury must decide whether the company took sufficient action to prevent discrimination and persecution; and if yes - in the second stage, the plaintiffs (around 6 thousand of them) will file their claims for damages.
The Tesla factory in Fremont, California also has a history of worker injuries - the injury rate there is higher than the average in the US. Musk himself is accused of resisting workers' attempts to unionize.
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