Tesla can design impressive electric cars, but it keeps hitting legal potholes.
Six former workers (including five HR staff members and a security manager) are now suing the company. They claim Tesla ignored racist behavior at its California factory and punished employees who spoke up.
This isn’t new. Over the years, Tesla has faced multiple lawsuits over racism complaints.
Workers have described a place where racial slurs and threats were common. What makes this case different? Even the HR team hired to protect employees says they got fired for trying to do their jobs.
The lawsuit was filed in a California federal court earlier this month. Documents show that these former staffers felt silenced when they reported problems. Tesla hasn’t commented on the case yet, but legal experts say the pattern looks troubling.
Take Karen Draper, for example. She was a senior HR manager who got promoted by Elon Musk himself.
But just months later, she was fired. The trouble started when she disagreed with a production manager, Kristopher Lindsey. Lindsey wanted to fire a woman on medical leave. This is a move Draper knew was against the law. Instead of backing her up, higher-ups called her “aggressive,” falling back on that old “Angry Black Woman” stereotype. By February 2023, she was gone.
Then there was Linda Peloquin, an Asian American HR manager.
She says she was fired for sticking up for her team. Atlanta Black Star reports that they’d backed a Black employee who complained about a white coworker asking him, “Do you want to hang by a tree?” That wasn’t the only problem. Workers also found racist graffiti and nooses around the plant. Peloquin took her worries all the way up to Musk. Days later, she was out of a job.
Tesla lost an attempt to block a California lawsuit alleging it operates a “racially segregated” workplace. A judge is still set to rule on a motion to dismiss it this week.
Workers report swastikas and managers using slurs, one being called the n-word “approximately 100 times.” pic.twitter.com/vBNHOllwWy
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 22, 2022
The lawsuit spells it out plainly: Tesla put Model Y deadlines and profits ahead of treating people right. HR staff say they got orders to twist complaints about race into different problems entirely to dodge bad headlines and lawsuits. One manager reportedly told HR they should only hire Black workers who’d “accept” hearing racial slurs.
Ozell Murray, who headed security and is also suing, tried to flag serious issues: drugs on-site, sexual assaults, and workers facing payback for reporting racism. Instead of acting, his bosses pushed him aside. After he called out racist hiring practices and how Tesla’s “zero tolerance” rules were being abused, Murray says higher-ups cooked up false reasons to pressure him into quitting.
The six workers suing Tesla want their day in court. They’re asking for money to cover lost wages, emotional harm, and punitive damages against the company. Tesla has three weeks to answer the allegations formally. So far, the automaker hasn’t commented.
Elon Musk lays off the top people in charge of Tesla’s diversity and inclusivity programs, including the executive who was president of Tesla’s LGBTQ employee community group. Anyone surprised? pic.twitter.com/nu4msPfXpa
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) June 20, 2022
This case adds to a growing list of lawsuits over Tesla’s workplace culture.
Previous complaints have painted a picture of discrimination and unequal treatment. With each new filing, pressure builds. The question hanging over Tesla now: Can a company known for breaking engineering barriers fix its internal problems? Or has its culture stalled?
ALSO READ: Decomposing Body Discovered in Abandoned Tesla Registered to Popular Singer
