A government jury in San Francisco on Monday requested Tesla Inc to pay about $3.2 million to a black ex-worker after he won a racial discrimination claim against the electric-vehicle producer.
The decision came following seven days in length retrial in the 2017 claim by offended party Owen Diaz, who in 2021 was granted $137 million by an alternate jury. A judge said that the award was too much despite agreeing with that jury that Tesla was to blame. Following Diaz's rejection of the reduced $15 million award, he started a new damages trial.
Diaz had repeatedly complained to Tesla's managers that employees at the Fremont, California, factory frequently used racist slurs and scrawled swastikas, racist caricatures, and epithets on walls and work areas. Diaz had accused Tesla of failing to act and respond to the complaints.
Tesla President Elon Musk in a tweet said "the decision would've been zero" in the event that the adjudicator had permitted the organization to present new proof in the retrial. As usual, Elon Musk took to twitter to expand on the court's decision.
This event is important, as Tesla workers are under discussion to start a union to protect themselves.