A federal jury in San Francisco ordered Tesla to pay around $3.2 million to a former Black employee after he won a racial discrimination lawsuit against the electric car manufacturer. This amount is significantly lower than the $15 million that was previously rejected last year, prompting a new trial. The ruling comes a week after the retrial of the lawsuit filed by Owen Diaz in 2017, following a previous jury's award of $137 million in 2021. A judge agreed with this jury that Tesla was responsible for the discrimination Diaz faced, but stated that the compensation amount was excessive, ordering a new trial regarding the damages after Diaz rejected the already reduced amount of $15 million.
Diaz accused Tesla of failing to take appropriate action in response to his repeated complaints to managers at the Fremont, California factory about employees who often used racial slurs against him and drew racially offensive illustrations on the factory's walls and work areas. On Monday, the jury awarded Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator, $175,000 in compensation for the psychological harm he suffered due to the discrimination and $3 million in punitive damages aimed at punishing this illegal behavior and deterring it in the future.
Tesla's CEO Elon Musk tweeted, stating: "The compensation ruling would have been zero if the judge allowed the company to present additional evidence in the new trial. The jury did its best based on the information it had. I respect the decision."
