Tesla workers faced slurs, racist graffiti and retaliation, federal suit says

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla allowed racial harassment of its Black employees to run rampant at its Fremont, Calif., plant and retaliated against some workers who complained, the federal agency charged with enforcing civil rights laws alleged in a lawsuit Thursday.

Black employees routinely faced racial slurs, including variations of the n-word, at the Fremont site, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and graffiti depicting nooses, swastikas and more were casually drawn across the facility’s public spaces. Tesla did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of allegations blasting the billionaire’s workplace environments - the Justice Department sued SpaceX, also owned by Musk, last month, alleging the company discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring process. Half a dozen women sued Tesla in 2021, arguing that the company fostered a culture of sexual harassment. That same year, a federal court in California ordered Tesla to pay nearly $137 million in damages after an employee said they encountered racist abuse at Tesla’s Fremont site. The Fremont plant faced scrutiny again last year, when the state’s workplace regulator sued Tesla over similar claims of racial discrimination and harassment.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, since at least 2015, Black employees at the Fremont facility “have routinely endured racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping, and hostility as well as epithets such as variations of the N-word, ‘monkey,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘black b----.’”

“Slurs were used casually and openly in high-traffic areas and at worker hubs. Black employees regularly encountered graffiti, including variations of the N-word, swastikas, threats, and nooses, on desks and other equipment, in bathroom stalls, within elevators, and even on new vehicles rolling off the production line,” the EEOC said in a news release announcing the suit.

The agency added that employees who objected to the hostility were terminated, transferred or had their job duties changed.

Racial misconduct spanned the company’s ranks, with managers, supervisors, line leads, production associates and temporary workers using racial slurs, the agency’s complaint stated. Black employees stated that non-Black workers used variations of the n-word “almost every day.” One employee described the n-word as his White co-workers’ and supervisor’s “preferred pronoun.”

“Every employee deserves to have their civil rights respected, and no worker should endure the kind of shameful racial bigotry our investigation revealed,” EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said in a statement.

Tesla’s Fremont site is the company’s first manufacturing facility, and where it continues to produce the company’s Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y. Tesla has since grown to include facilities in Nevada, Texas, New York, Shanghai and Berlin.

The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The government seeks compensatory and punitive damages, back pay for the affected workers, and measures to reform Tesla’s employment practices.

“When you let a standard slip, you’ve set a new standard. Determining that prolific racial slurs do not merit serious discipline and failing to correct harassing conduct sends an entirely wrong message to employees,” EEOC San Francisco District Office Director Nancy Sienko said. “It also violates an employer’s legal responsibility to act swiftly and effectively to stop race-based harassment.”