A San Francisco court has ordered Tesla to pay almost $3.2 million to a former contract worker who said he experienced racist abuse while working at a company factory in Fremont, California.
The court on Monday ordered Tesla to pay $3 million in punitive damages and $175,000 in non-economic damages to Owen Diaz, who worked as a contracted elevator operator at the electric vehicle maker’s Fremont plant in 2015 and 2016 before quitting, DailyMail reports on Tuesday.
Diaz said that he was regularly harassed and targeted by racial slurs during his time at Tesla.
In a lawsuit, Diaz alleged that employees put racist graffiti and drawings around the plant and that superiors failed to stop the abuse.
The almost $3.2 million order is far less than what Diaz was previously awarded in 2021 – when a different San Francisco court agreed that Diaz was subject to racist harassment and a hostile work environment at the Fremont plant, ordering Tesla to pay nearly $137 million.
However, US District Judge William Orrick ruled that the $137 million settlement was excessive – and offered Diaz a significantly reduced award of $15 million in damages instead.
