A former Tesla building supervisor has filed a lawsuit towards the electrical automobile firm, alleging he was fired in retaliation for reporting a mess of security violations, shoddy oversight and racial discrimination at Tesla’s factories.
The lawsuit, filed by former worker Marc Cage in Alameda County court docket, marks the newest in a string of lawsuits filed by particular person staff or authorities regulators towards Tesla, revolving round allegations of racial or sexual harassment and discrimination.
In his lawsuit, Cage, who's African American, alleges that he “witnessed and reported numerous violations to dozens of Tesla personnel in varied departments, together with to the best ranges of the corporate” throughout his roughly two years working for Tesla, in line with a press release from his attorneys.
Quite than handle the issues he delivered to the fore, the corporate fired him, the lawsuit alleges.
Cage reported violations to a number of superiors, together with a welding violation that would have led to “catastrophic, deadly explosions” on the firm’s battery manufacturing unit in Nevada, in line with the lawsuit.
After making a few of these stories, Cage was “explicitly informed that elevating a problem with Tesla’s building practices, or in any other case slowing manufacturing, was out of the query, as that will intrude with the agendas of CEO Elon Musk and Jerome Guillen, president of automotive” at Tesla, the lawsuit mentioned.
Cage “was skilled to uphold the best stage of building compliance,” however “Tesla ignored his stories, then fired him” in retaliation, Cage’s lawyer, Tamarah Prevost mentioned in a press release.
“Terminating Mr. Cage additionally perpetuates the corporate’s troubling sample of prioritizing pace of manufacturing over worker security,” Prevost mentioned.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that Cage confronted racial discrimination whereas working for Tesla.
“Just about each restroom in Tesla’s Fremont facility contained writings or carvings of racist symbols and slurs, together with swastikas and distinguished shows of the n-word,” the lawsuit mentioned, alleging that Tesla did nothing to handle the problems.
“Mr. Cage additionally skilled what no worker ought to ever should endure: a blatantly racist office,” Prevost mentioned.
Cage mentioned he was referred to as racist names routinely. One in all Cage’s managers referred to a few of Cage’s African American colleagues as Cage’s “brothers,” however “by no means referred to anybody else of a special race as his brother, the lawsuit mentioned.
“Using this time period was racially motivated and demeaning,” the lawsuit mentioned.
“Tesla’s failure to treatment the outrageous remedy that (Cage) and different African American and Black staff skilled is unjustifiable,” Prevost mentioned.
Cage’s lawsuit comes a bit over per week after California’s Division of Truthful Employment and Housing sued the corporate, accusing it of working what quantities to a “racially segregated office” on the Fremont manufacturing unit.
“Black staff are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated towards in job assignments, self-discipline, pay, and promotion, making a hostile work setting,” Kevin Kish, the division’s director mentioned in a assertion.
Tesla, in its personal assertion previous the state’s, mentioned California’s case “seems targeted on alleged misconduct by manufacturing associates on the Fremont manufacturing unit that befell between 2015 and 2019,
“Tesla strongly opposes all types of discrimination and harassment and has a devoted Worker Relations group that responds to and investigates all complaints, the corporate assertion mentioned.
Tesla additionally mentioned the state’s lawsuit is “unfair and counterproductive.”
“Attacking an organization like Tesla that has executed a lot good for California shouldn't be the overriding goal of a state company with prosecutorial authority. The pursuits of staff and elementary equity should come first,” Tesla mentioned.
Tesla didn't reply to a request for touch upon Cage’s lawsuit.
The corporate additionally was sued earlier this month by Kaylen Barker, an African American employee at a Tesla components manufacturing unit in Lathrop, who alleges that a White co-worker referred to as her a racial slur and assaulted her.
In November, Tesla manufacturing unit employee Jessica Barraza alleged in a lawsuit that she and different ladies staff on the Fremont plant had been subjected to “a pervasive tradition of sexual harassment” that included “frequent groping on the manufacturing unit ground.”
In October, a San Francisco federal court docket jury awarded a Black former employee on the Fremont manufacturing unit, Owen Diaz, virtually $137 million — believed to be one of many largest awards in U.S. historical past for a single plaintiff in a race-discrimination case by which he claimed he confronted “day by day racist epithets.”
Tesla is in search of a brand new trial in that case, and mentioned in its annual report it will enchantment the award “if obligatory.”
Employees author Ethan Baron contributed to this report.