Work should be a safe environment in which employees can complete their assigned tasks without worry. Unfortunately, many people in Wisconsin and across the rest of the United States continue to face ongoing discrimination from their employers. Several workers recently accused auto manufacturer Tesla of serious acts of workplace discrimination at one of its facilities.
Tesla is currently facing four lawsuits for worker mistreatment that allegedly took place at an out-of-state facility that employs approximately 10,000 people. At least four different employees claim that they faced racial discrimination while working at the factory in question. One former employee alleged that he was called racial slurs and threatened with physical violence. Tesla refuted those claims, instead insisting that he had been the one to use such language.
Three different individuals filed a separate suit making similar claims. Although they were employed by a different company that was contracted under Tesla, their suit states that they suffered from racial discrimination while working at the same factory. All three claim that they were called racial epithets by co-workers, and that they have received dozens upon dozens of phone calls from other Tesla employees expressing their support and disclosing similar stories of harassment.
This is not the first time Tesla has been accused of allowing workplace discrimination to occur. A gender discrimination claim from 2016 is currently being arbitrated, and the company is dealing with a claim of retaliatory firing from another worker. When Wisconsin workers are the victims of workplace harassment and discrimination such as this, pursuing a lawsuit against their employers is often the best option for achieving related legal recourse.
Source: NBC Montana, “Tesla factory at center of discrimination lawsuits“, Sara Ashley O’Brien, Oct. 26, 2017