Tesla Pays $1 Million to Former Employee, Reports Say

A former Tesla employee was paid $1 million from the automaker when an arbitrator found out that the company failed to stop the supervisors from calling him a racial slur.

Melvin Berry, a Black American, joined Tesla’s Alameda plant in California back in 2015. He claimed that his supervisors labelled him N-word. He was also forced to work for longer hours. However, Tesla has denied the allegations.

During the May 12th hearing, Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said that Tesla was responsible for Berry’s harassment. “Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe harassment,” Rushing wrote.

She further wrote that a supervisor who mailed a warning letter to Berry was not trustworthy.

However, Tesla said that there is no solid evidence to the complaint that berry made about calling him N-word. The company said that he left voluntarily.

Arbitration proceedings with the companies are kept confidential. But according to Bloomberg, berry’s attorney files a petition in the court to consider the arbitrator’s order, which revealed the decision.

Berry’s attorney Lawrance Organ said that he will not pursue any further legal actions as the company paid him the reward.

This is not the first case against Tesla. Back in 2017, former assembly worker Marcus Vaughan filed a complaint against tesla that the company has not taken any measures in response to his written complaint about supervisors and employees calling him N-word.