A federal agency responsible for enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination issued a cause finding against electric vehicle maker Tesla®.

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing says it conducted a three-year-long investigation and received hundreds of complaints from Tesla® workers at the company’s Fremont, California, factory.

The agency says it found evidence that Tesla®:

-Kept Black workers in the lowest level roles in the company, and paid them less than White and other colleagues;

-Denied Black workers training and promotions, and disciplined them more severely than others;

-Assigned Black workers more physically demanding work within the company’s factories;

-Retaliated against Black workers who formally complained to human resources after supervisors and other colleagues used racist epithets to try to intimidate or degrade them;

-Practically ignored complaints from Black workers who protested “the commonplace use of racial slurs on the assembly line;” and,

-Moved unreasonably slowly to “clean up racist graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols scrawled in common areas.”

The DFEH alleges that there are no Black executives at Tesla®, and only 3% of professionals at the company’s Fremont car plant are Black — however, 20% of the factory operatives at the company’s Fremont vehicle assembly plant are Black.

The agency is seeking unspecified damages and for the company to reinstate workers who were unfairly terminated.

Discrimination is prejudicial or unfair treatment of people because of their membership in a legally protected category, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or age.

There are many state and federal laws that protect individuals in these protected groups — there are also many state laws that provide protections against discrimination.

Anti-discrimination laws give individuals a limited amount of time to file a discrimination lawsuit — the time limit depends on the context of the situation and the laws that apply to it.

For those considering filing a discrimination lawsuit, it is critical to meet the applicable statutory deadlines.

Those that miss a deadline to either file a complaint or a lawsuit will likely no longer be eligible to file a complaint or claim.

The Consumer Assistance Team believes that victims experiencing alleged civil rights discrimination while working at Tesla® should receive compensation for losses.