In 2021, a San Francisco court ordered Tesla to pay Owen Diaz, a former black contractor worker who accused the company of enabling a racist workplace, $137 million in damages. It was one of the highest amounts awarded to a person who filed a discrimination lawsuit, but subsequent appeals reduced it significantly. While U.S. District Judge William Orrick affirmed the original jury verdict, he found the original damages awarded to Diaz “excessive” and reduced the total to $15 million. Now a federal jury in San Francisco has further reduced the amount and ordered Tesla to pay Diaz $3.2 million only.
The former elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont Assembly Plant rejected the $15 million award that Orrick had proposed, instead requesting a new trial. At the last hearing, Diaz recounted his experiences working for Tesla, where he said he and his fellow black workers were subjected to racial slurs. He also said he was made to feel unsafe on the job and that other workers left swastika pictures and racist graffiti, such as Inki the cave manin your workspace and in company restrooms.
Diaz’s lawyers urged the jury to sanction Tesla, a company currently worth more than $600 billion, an amount that will catch their attention. But Tesla’s attorney, Alex Spiro, reportedly argued that Diaz should only be awarded half of his salary. He apparently characterized Diaz as a liar in court, who misstated how long he worked at the automaker and exaggerated testimony about him and the abuse he suffered to get a bigger payout.
However, we may not see the end of this case. According to the Los Angeles TimesDiaz’s attorney believes the jury decided to award him only $3 million in punitive damages and $175,000 in non-economic damages because the defense wrongly targeted him. He said Tesla’s “minimize and sanitize” strategy worked and that he has already filed for a new trial for “misconduct.”