Former Tesla employee Kaylen Barker filed a lawsuit last week against Tesla charging racial discrimination. Now a California regulator believes it has enough evidence to file a civil rights lawsuit, the Daily Beast reported Monday.
"Being a Black worker at Tesla’s renowned California factory is to be forced to step back in time and suffer painful abuses reminiscent of the Jim Crow Era," the complaint from Baker says.
The case from the 25-year-old, who is Black and gay, goes on to claim that "a white coworker at the company’s Lathrop plant called her the N-word and assaulted her with a hot grinding tool," said the report. "After Barker complained to human resources, Tesla allegedly retaliated by withholding her wages."
It also claims a hostile work environment for women and people of color. It also comes after a jury ordered nearly $137 million from a racism complaint from a former employee who encountered racial epithets and calls for him to "go back to Africa."
The new development is that California regulators are taking the next steps after complaints of racial discrimination. It was just a month ago that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) announced "a Notice of Cause Finding and Mandatory Dispute Resolution following an investigation into undisclosed allegations of race discrimination and harassment at unspecified Tesla locations,” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
They were told that, based on the evidence that they collected, it is believed that there are grounds to file the civil complaint against Tesla.
Read the full report at the Daily Beast.
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