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Tesla Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Marc Cage has filed a lawsuit against Tesla.
- Why: Cage, a former Tesla construction manager, claims he was fired after he reported widespread racial discrimination and safety violations at the company’s factories.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
Tesla is facing a lawsuit from a former construction manager who claims he was fired for reporting widespread safety violations and race-based discrimination at the electric car manufacturer’s factories.
Marc Cage, an African American male, claims he was let go by Tesla after he reported the company for safety violations that occurred at its Nevada battery factory and for a systematic failure to disclose serious workplace injuries, National Post reports.
Cage says the alleged safety violations, which he argues can be traced to the company’s desire for increased production, could have led to massive explosions occurring at the facility.
In addition, Cage claims he was subjected to racial discrimination by other employees at the facility, all to the knowledge of Tesla’s management, National Post reports.
This is not the first time Tesla has faced claims of allowing racial discrimination to occur in its factories.
Racial Discrimination Class Action Not The First Tesla Has Faced
Another former Tesla worker filed an ongoing class action lawsuit against the company in 2017, calling its Fremont, Calif. factory a “hotbed for racist behavior.”
Marcus Vaughn, an African American male, argues the company created a work environment of hostility and intimidation for its African American workers.
Vaughn claims the race-based harassment continued despite him reporting on a number of occasions to his supervisors, the company’s human resources department, and its CEO and founder Elon Musk. Ultimately, Vaughn says he was terminated from the company in October 2017 for “not having a positive attitude.”
The allegations also echoed that of a former Tesla subcontractor, Owen Diaz, who the company was ordered to pay $136.9 million last year.
Diaz claimed in a 2017 complaint that he faced workplace discrimination and racial harrassment from coworkers and supervisors while working as an elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory.
A separate lawsuit was also filed against Tesla earlier this month by a former worker claiming she was subjected to racial and sexual harassment while working at Tesla Energy, a Tesla subsidiary.
Shanel Dickson, a Black woman, claims she was regularly called the n-word by her white supervisors while working as a solar panel installer for the company
Dickson claims she was put on a “performance improvement plan” after she reported the issue, and was assigned to trash pickup duties as an investigation took place.
Tesla To Pay $275,000 To End Claims It Violated Clean Air Act
In the midst of the discrimination claims, Tesla has also been dealing with allegations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the company violated the Clean Air Act.
Tesla agreed to pay a $275,000 civil penalty on Monday to resolve claims the company had disregarded hazardous waste laws at its Northern California electric vehicle manufacturing plant.
The allegations were the result of an EPA inspection at the facility made less than three years ago, Law360 reports. The EPA claimed Tesla failed to come up with a way to minimize the emissions of hazardous air pollutants in its factory, among other things.
Tesla neither “admits nor denies” the allegations against it, according to a consent agreement filed with the EPA.
Have you faced racial or sexual discrimination in the workplace? Let us know in the comments.
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