Tesla has reached a settlement in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a Black female employee who alleged ongoing harassment at the company’s Fremont, California, factory, according to a court filing made Thursday in San Francisco federal court.
Raina Pierce, who worked installing latches on vehicle doors, accused a manager at the facility of greeting employees with phrases such as āwelcome to the plantationā and āwelcome to the slave house.ā The settlement, whose terms were not disclosed, was reached through mediation and is pending final documentation.
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Pierceās complaint described a hostile work environment where racial slurs were allegedly found written in bathrooms and other parts of the factory, and where she was disciplined for behavior reportedly tolerated among non-Black colleagues. She also recounted being called gender-based insults and experiencing differential treatment on the production line.
“Ma’am, you need to go to HR because these leads are saying things about you that are not right,” a Tesla employee who briefly worked on her line told her, according to the lawsuit.
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Tesla, led by CEO Elon Muskāwho was not named as a defendantāhas faced previous allegations of racial discrimination at the Fremont facility. In a high-profile case, former elevator operator Owen Diaz settled earlier this year after a 2021 jury initially awarded him $137 million, a sum later reduced and retried.
Neither Pierceās legal team nor Tesla immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the settlement.
The case is Pierce v. Tesla Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-03177.