Daily News

View All News

Contingent worker rejects $15 million award in Tesla bias lawsuit

June 22, 2022

A former contingent worker at automaker Tesla rejected the company’s offer to pay $15 million in damages in a discrimination lawsuit, according to court records. A federal jury in San Francisco had awarded the worker $136.9 million in damages during a trial on Oct. 4, but a judge had rejected the amount as too large.

Owen Diaz, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, had worked through staffing firms at Tesla’s auto factory in Fremont, California, from June 2015 to May 2016. Diaz, who is Black, said he experienced several serious incidents of racism including racial epithets, and at one point another employee drew racist and derogatory caricatures of African children, according to court records.

TechCrunch reported Tesla’s lawyers said the $15 million award wouldn’t deter future conduct by Tesla. TechCrunch also reported the rejection will lead to a new trial.

The $15 million included $1.5 million in compensatory damage and $13.5 million in punitive damages. The original $136.9 million awarded by the jury included $4.5 million in past noneconomic damages, $2.4 million in future noneconomic damages and $130 million in punitive damages.

Tesla is facing other bias lawsuits as well. In February, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a civil lawsuit alleging systemic race discrimination. Separately, a shareholder from New Jersey filed suit against the company saying an unsafe, racist and sexist work environment at the company constitutes a breach of fiduciary duty to shareholders, Courthouse News Service reported.