US District Judge William Orrick has rejected Tesla’s argument that it is not liable to Owen Diaz, in accordance with The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Diaz is a former Black Tesla employee who accused the corporate of turning a blind eye to the racial abuse he suffered whereas working at its Fremont, California manufacturing unit from 2015 to 2016. Last 12 months, a jury dominated in favor of Diaz and awarded him $6.9 million in compensatory damages, in addition to $130 million in punitive damages. Orrick has affirmed the jury’s verdict however diminished the award to $15 million.
To be precise, he diminished the compensatory damages awarded to Diaz to $1.5 million from $6.9 million, which he referred to as “extreme.” He additionally slashed the “unconstitutionally giant” punitive damages award from $130 million to $13.5 million. Punitive damages awarded by courts are supposed to punish a defendant and deter them from repeating their actions — or, in Tesla’s case, from allegedly ignoring the racial abuse of a Black employee. Tesla has a market worth exceeding $1 trillion, nonetheless, and $13.5 million is a drop within the bucket for the automaker. Diaz’s lawyer stated they plan to attraction the lowered damages award.
Nevertheless, Judge Orrick agreed that Tesla confirmed a “putting” indifference to Diaz’s plight. In his authentic lawsuit, Diaz stated he wasn’t simply subjected to racial slurs, fellow staff (and even one supervisor) additionally left drawings of swastika and racist graffiti across the plant. He stated Tesla’s administration uncared for to halt the abuse. Judge Orrick wrote in his ruling:
“Not solely does the proof assist a discovering of recklessness or indifference to Diaz’s well being and security, it helps a discovering that Tesla deliberately constructed an employment construction that allowed it to make the most of Diaz’s (and others’) labor for its profit whereas making an attempt to keep away from any of the obligations and obligations that employers owe staff.”
Tesla has confronted a number of racial discrimination lawsuits through the years aside from Diaz’s, with staff claiming that they had been subjected to fixed racial abuse in its factories. In February, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit in opposition to the automaker after discovering proof that its “Fremont manufacturing unit is a racially segregated office” the place Black staff are discriminated in opposition to. Tesla denied the accusation, saying it “opposes all types of discrimination and harassment” and that it has a “devoted Employee Relations staff that responds to and investigates all complaints.”