San Francisco, California – Tesla has reached a settlement with Owen Diaz, a former employee, in a discrimination case that shed light on the company’s treatment of people of color. Last April, a federal jury awarded Diaz nearly $3.2 million. The recent agreement reached between the parties resolves all claims.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed in the court document filed in the US district court in San Francisco. The agreement stipulates that both parties consider the matter resolved, leading to the dismissal of the case against the company led by Elon Musk. Messages seeking further information from Tesla’s lawyers and Diaz’s attorney, Lawrence Organ, were left unanswered on Saturday.
The case dates back to 2017 when Diaz alleged that Tesla failed to address a racist culture at its Fremont factory in California. During his nine-month tenure at the company, Diaz, a Black man, claimed he was subjected to racial epithets, shown racist cartoons, and told to “go back to Africa.”
Following a five-day trial with an eight-person jury, Diaz was awarded significantly less in damages compared to his initial $137 million verdict in 2021. The US district judge William Orrick reduced the award to $15 million, prompting Diaz and his legal team to seek a new trial.
In addition to the lawsuit brought by Diaz, California regulators have filed a racial discrimination case against Tesla related to the same factory. Despite denying the allegations, Tesla has faced scrutiny over its practices, prompting CEO Elon Musk to relocate the company’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, in 2021.
The settlement with Diaz marks a conclusion to a prolonged legal battle that highlighted issues of racial discrimination within the electric vehicle manufacturer.