Tesla loses challenge to California agency suing for racial bias. The California administrative agency declined to review Tesla’s claim. However, Tesla can pursue its claims in court. The petition by Tesla was filed in June, to determine whether the Department of Civil Rights (DCR) has adopted “underground regulations”.
The OAL, which reviews state agency regulations and can recommend changes, did not give a reason for the denial and said Tesla can still pursue its claims in court. The department in a pending lawsuit filed in February says Tesla’s flagship Fremont, California, plant was a racially segregated workplace where Black employees were harassed and discriminated against in terms of job assignments, discipline, and pay.
A representative of Tesla, which has denied wrongdoing in the race bias case, had no immediate comment. A spokesperson for the DCR did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency was called the Department of Fair Employment and Housing before changing its name last month.
Tesla’s petition with the OAL was an attempt to rein in the department’s authority to pursue discrimination cases by forcing it to take additional steps before suing, such as providing businesses with detailed explanations of alleged legal violations and making efforts to settle outside of court.
In the pending lawsuit, Tesla has argued that the DCR sued without first notifying the company of all of the claims or giving it a chance to settle. A California state judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday on Tesla’s motion to dismiss the case. The lawsuit is one of several pending in California courts that accuse Tesla of tolerating discrimination and sexual harassment at its factories. A state judge in April cut a jury verdict for a Black worker who alleged racial harassment from $137 million to $15 million. The worker, Owen Diaz, rejected the reduced award and opted for a new trial, which is scheduled for March 2023.
A federal judge in California ordered a new trial on the damages Tesla Inc owes to a Black former factory worker who accused the company of race discrimination, after he turned down a $15 million award. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco granted Tesla’s motion for a new trial a week after the former elevator operator, Owen Diaz, said he would not accept the judge’s award. A jury last October awarded Diaz $137 million, one of the largest verdicts ever in a discrimination case involving a single worker. Orrick in April said Tesla was liable to Diaz for discrimination, but he said the award was excessive and lowered it to $15 million.
