Posted by FOX BusinessA Tesla vehicle drives past Tesla's primary vehicle factory in Fremont, California, U.S. May 11, 2020. REUTERS/Stephen Lamto pay about $3.2 million to a Black former employee after the electric-vehicle maker was found to have failed to prevent severe racial harassment at its flagship assembly plant in California.
The verdict came after a week-long trial in the 2017 lawsuit by plaintiff Owen Diaz, who in 2021 was awarded $137 million by a different jury. He opted for a new trial on damages after a judge agreed with that jury that Tesla was liable but significantlyDiaz accused Tesla of failing to act when he repeatedly complained to managers that employees at the Fremont, California, factory frequently used racist slurs and scrawled swastikas, racist caricatures and epithets on walls and work areas.
The jury on Monday awarded Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator, $175,000 in damages for emotional distress and $3 million in punitive damages designed to punish unlawful conduct and deter it in the future.