Tesla has reserved a decision to remove someone who claimed a racist work environment from his class-action status, as reported In 2021, California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkan, appointed by Gov, Gavin Newsom, ruled that the lawsuit could not proceed with class-action status because plaintiffs’ attorneys had failed to find 200 class members willing to testify, The judge said he could not assume that the experiences of a select group of workers could be applied to an entire class of future plaintiffs,
The 2017 lawsuit began with a single employee who filed suit alleging that Tesla’s Fremont production floor was a “hotbed of racist behavior” and that more than 100 employees had experienced racial harassment.
In 2024, a lower court judge ruled that the case could proceed as a class action, a decision which Tesla has since appealed. The case was scheduled to go to trial in April, although now that the case has lost its class-action status, each plaintiff will have to bring their case against Tesla separately.
This is not the first time that Tesla has been in court over alleged racial misconduct. In 2023, the automaker was sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations that Black employees were subjected to racial slurs and retaliation.
Last year, a Tesla employee said she faced discrimination at the same California plant, reporting that her co-workers left drawings of swastikas and racist figures on her workplace.