Tesla, the electric vehicle and clean energy company paid out over $1 million to a former Black employee because the well-established company did not stop his supervisors from calling him the N-word, Black Enterprise reported.
Melvin Berry was first hired at a Northern California Tesla plant in 2015 and he quit the plant after 18 months, per the article.
According to court filings, an arbitrator found Berry’s allegations of job-related racial abuse more credible than Tesla’s denials of the situation, per the article.
According to Berry, when he was confronting an immediate supervisor about his regular usage of the N-word, he was subject to working longer hours with heavier equipment, according to the article. Berry said that he wants his case to bring national coverage about how Tesla treats its Black employees throughout the company.
“I hope the world knows that an arbitrator found Tesla treats its employees like this,” Berry, 47, told Bloomberg, according to the article. Berry also said that he’s now taking time off to focus on his mental health as he still hasn’t “gotten over the healing process.”
Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said in her decision she found Tesla liable because the racial problems stemmed from Berry’s supervisors.
“Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe harassment,” Rushing wrote, according to the story.
According to an article from Fortune, George Floyd’s death by a white police officer in May 2020 sparked protests opposing systemic racism – and also important discussions about what does workplace equity and equality look like. These protests against systemic racism have also made discussions on what does lip service look like for Black employees who feel that their concerns are not really being heard.
The Fortune article wrote that an overwhelming number of Black employees surveyed said that systemic racism in the workplace impacts them directly. The article said that over half of Black employees have felt racism at work, according to one study shows.
Tesla, however, has denied past allegations of racial discrimination and harassment. In 2017, Tesla released a statement saying it “is absolutely against any form of discrimination, harassment, or unfair treatment of any kind.” According to Bloomberg, Black Tesla employees have complained for years that the company turns a blind eye to the commonplace use of the N-word and was slow to clean up graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols placed in common areas.
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