After being sexually abused for being a Lesbian at work, former worker of Tesla Motors, Jorge Ferro, filed a lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit was charged on the inability of the firm to provide protection to its workers from anti-gay harassment.
A few months back, the company’s diversity panel uncovered a slew of sexism. Now The Guardian reports that another employee is suing the automaker for anti-LGBT taunts. The defendant, an assembly line worker claimed that he was harassed by the coworker, with some snide and snarky remarks including, “Watch your back,” and offensive comments on the “tight fitting” clothes.
The former worker claimed that the firm failed to solve the issue and instead of punishing the offender, the victim was targeted and transferred to another site. And soon terminated once the problem could not be solved, as Jorge Ferro claimed.
However, the company’s spokesperson negates any such allegation, saying that the company has never had a case of the sort for it aims to keep the workers content and peaceful while working here. Furthermore, they strongly stated that the employee was hired by third party employers and not by Tesla itself.
In a strong retaliation to media and its coverage on the lawsuits, Tesla’ spokesperson stated the following:
“Media reporting on claims of discrimination at Tesla should bear a few things in mind: First, as one of the most highly reported-on companies in the world, anyone who brings claims against Tesla is all but assured that they will garner significant media coverage. Second, in the history of Tesla, there has never been a single proven case of discrimination against the company. Not one. This fact is conveniently never mentioned in any reporting. Third, as we have said repeatedly, even though we are a company of 33,000 employees, including more than 10,000 in the Fremont factory alone, and it is not humanly possible to stop all bad conduct, we care deeply about these issues and take them extremely seriously. If there is ever a case where Tesla is at fault, we will take responsibility.”
He further added, “Tesla will always fight back against unmeritorious claims. In this case, neither of the two people at the center of the claim, Mr. Ferro and the person who he alleges to have mistreated him, actually worked for Tesla. Both worked for a third-party. Nevertheless, Tesla still stepped in to try to keep these individuals apart from one another and to ensure a good working environment. Regardless of these facts, every lawyer knows that if they name Tesla as a defendant in their lawsuit, it maximizes the chances of generating publicity for their case. They abuse our name, because they know it is catnip for journalists. Tesla takes any and every form of discrimination or harassment extremely seriously. There is no company on Earth with a better track record than Tesla, as they would have to have fewer than zero cases where an independent judge or jury has found a genuine case of discrimination. This is physically impossible. ”
However, despite what the firm has to say, there has been cases in the past, reflecting the presence of racial harassment in the working environment at Tesla. Three former African-American employees sued Tesla, claiming they’d suffered constant, often daily racial discrimination and harassment, and that the company did little to nothing to stop the behavior.
Things are a bit down in the firm, for its working towards the production of Model 3, however could not manage the discipline in the work field. For it is still fighting a lawsuit from a former employee, who alleged how women were improperly treated at the firm.