Melvin Berry, a former employee of Tesla’s Alameda plant, allegedly received a compensation of one million euros for having received racist slurs from his supervisor. According to what emerged in the lawsuit, the supervisor would have called him with the “N-word“, Which can be translated into Italian by adding one too many“ g ”in the word black. And after Berry pointed this out, he would force him to work longer and harder as a punishment.
Tesla pays one million euros for racist insults to an employee
According to Bloomberg Law, the judge Elaine Rushing decided on May 12 that Tesla was responsible for the abuse and harassment described by Berry. “The legal background is clear that one occasion when a supervisor uses N-words against an employee is enough to constitute severe harassment,” the judge writes. Additionally, the judge said the supervisor who wrote a warning letter for Berry has no credibility. Tesla explained that No.There is no written evidence that Berry reported the case to the company, noting that Berry left the company of his own volition. The judge obviously disagreed.
Usually this type of cause remains private. But Berry’s lawyers tried one petition to the court to force the company to pay, which revealed the decision taken in the plea deal. But now the lawyers have confirmed that Tesla has paid the compensation.
This is not the first situation in which Tesla is accused of not effectively tackling racism. In 2017 the worker on the assembly line Marcus Vaugh he said the company hadn’t investigated when a supervisor called him N-word. Vaugh described the Fremont plant “outbreak of racist behavior“, Tesla had called Vaugh a” hotbed of disinformation “. Vaugh is trying to file a class action against Tesla, with the express approval of the court after the company tried to stop him.
Tesla has not responded to the press at the moment.