Tesla wants to suspend a federal lawsuit against it for racial bias against black workers at its Fremont assembly plant.
The electric car maker said in a filing Monday in San Francisco federal court that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Tesla in September as part of “harmful interagency competition” with the California civil rights agency. accused of rushing. The company sued the automaker last year on similar grounds.
The EEOC’s lawsuit alleges that Tesla violated federal law by condoning widespread and ongoing racial harassment of Black employees and retaliating against some employees who opposed the harassment. EEOC filings state that Black workers were accused of using slurs and epithets such as the N-word, variations such as “monkey,” “boy,” and “black bitch,” as well as racist graffiti that called for violence against Black people. There are detailed reports that it has withstood casual use. Other forms of abuse.
The California Civil Rights Division’s complaint against Tesla also includes similar examples of harassment from black workers.
Both lawsuits are pending in state court and allege that Tesla violated California anti-discrimination laws. The EEOC’s lawsuit also includes allegations that Tesla violated federal laws prohibiting racial discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Tesla also faces a proposed class action lawsuit filed by workers in 2017 alleging racial harassment.
The EEOC did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Tesla’s Monday filing says a federal court should refuse to file a third lawsuit until the existing lawsuit is resolved. Lawyers for the automakers argued that prosecuting the three cases simultaneously would involve a “substantial duplication of effort,” risk “inconsistent court decisions,” and waste judicial resources.
Tesla is calling for something called the Colorado River Abstention Principle here. This is a legal principle that allows a federal court to recuse itself from hearing a case if there is a parallel case in a state court dealing with the same issue. The goal behind this principle is to avoid duplicative litigation and promote more efficient justice.
The turf battle Tesla refers to in its filing is between the EEOC and the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The filing argues that historically the EEOC and CRD have worked together to protect entities from being subject to the same lawsuits from both agencies.
“That historic coordination and cooperation has disintegrated as agencies have become increasingly eager to file headline-grabbing complaints and report multi-million dollar settlements,” the filing said. It is stated in
Tesla has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in multiple racial discrimination incidents. Monday’s filing called the allegations “false” and accused the EEOC of “hastily covering them up.”[ping] Launching a bogus pre-litigation investigation. ”
The company is also appealing a $3.2 million award in a separate racial bias lawsuit to a black former contractor at the Fremont plant.
Source: techcrunch.com
