Vehicles pass the Tesla Inc. assembly plant in Fremont, California, U.S., on Monday, May 11, 2020.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued Tesla accusing Elon Musk’s electric car maker of violating “federal law by tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees and by subjecting some of these workers to retaliation for opposing the harassment.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal agency responsible for enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination announced it was filing suit against Tesla on Thursday.
Tesla was previously sued by a state civil rights agency in California over related allegations. A jury also previously ordered Tesla to pay a Black former worker, Owen Diaz, about $3.2 million in damages after finding he endured racist discrimination working there in 2015.
Last year, a financial filing from Tesla revealed that the EEOC had issued a cause finding against the company. After that, Tesla engaged in a mandatory conciliation process with the EEOC the filing said. The conciliation process was not successful, leading to the suit announced Thursday.