Lawsuit: At Tesla, racial discrimination is “standard operating procedure”

Enlarge / Tesla factory in Fremont, California as seen on April 20, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan )

Tesla is facing a new racial discrimination lawsuit filed by 15 factory employees who allege that Tesla's "standard operating procedures include blatant, open, and unmitigated race discrimination." Racial harassment and discrimination is "rampant" at Tesla and the company has "done little to nothing to reasonably prevent or stop this toxic behavior and work environment," the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs include nine men and six women who work or worked at Tesla factories in California. About half of the plaintiffs were either fired or quit, while the rest still work at Tesla.

"Plaintiffs, who [are] African-American employees, have been subjected to offensive racist comments and offensive racist behavior and discipline by colleagues, leads, supervisors, managers, and/or Human Resources personnel on a daily basis," the complaint says. The complaint alleges that an April 2021 incident at Tesla CEO Elon Musk's home led to one of the plaintiffs being fired on the same day.