Scandal in Tesla: six employees filed lawsuits for sexual harassment within the company

SAN FRANCISCO — Half a dozen women have sued Tesla alleging the electric vehicle company fostered a culture of sexual harassment at its Fremont, Calif., plant and other facilities, where female employees say they were subjected to lewd comments and yelling. sexually suggestive, unwanted physical contact and discrimination.

In six separate lawsuits filed Tuesday, women who worked at the factory or service centers say their male co-workers frequently referred to their bodies and clothing, with some women alleging they were moved from their jobs. work after reporting these behaviors.

The six women who filed the lawsuits described a number of common experiences both in interviews with The Washington Post and in legal documents. Several women alleged that they complained about the behavior, but it did not change; Other women said that because their superiors participated in the harassment, they were afraid to talk to Human Resources. Several women indicated that they tried to protect themselves from harassment by wearing loose clothing. Others, that their experience in the workplace caused depression and anxiety, which ultimately prevented them from advancing in their careers.

"Nightmare"

Jessica Brooks, who works at the Fremont seat factory, said the harassment was so extreme that she stacked boxes around her workstation to deter men from staring at her and whistling at her. In a lawsuit and in an interview with The Post, she claims that she bought shirts at a thrift store to tie around her waist in an effort to hide her body and prevent men from directing lewd comments at her. .

“I was so tired of the unwanted attention and men staring at me that I proceeded to create barriers around myself just so I could relieve myself,” said Brooks, who lives in Contra Costa County. “It was something that I felt was necessary to be able to do my job.”

Brooks alleges that she complained to Human Resources, but the behavior was not addressed. Instead of her, she said, she was moved to a different part of the factory. (The Post saw a message from Tesla Human Resources from November confirming that it had investigated Brooks' complaint.) She is currently on stress leave, she said.

The complaints follow a similar lawsuit filed last month in which another factory employee, Jessica Barraza, alleged "sexual harassment at Tesla" and "nightmarish conditions" at the factories. Tesla has yet to publicly respond to those allegations. A former SpaceX engineer, Ashley Kosak, alleged in a recent essay that multiple cases of sexual harassment were not followed up, saying "misogyny is rampant" at the company.

In court documents and interviews, many of the women in the Tesla cases drew a direct line between the abuse they suffered and the behavior of CEO Elon Musk, who also runs SpaceX. Musk, who was named Time magazine's person of the year on Monday, is known for his outrageous, and often lewd, tweets: he frequently references the number 69, jokingly named a fictional university with the acronym TITS, and dubbed his “S3XY” line of cars, for the S, 3, X and Y models.

"When it was rumored that Model Y was going to come out and that he was sexy ... back then everything got worse," said Eden Mederos, 31, in an interview with The Washington Post. "I was like, 'Oh this door panel is sexy, this pencil is sexy.'" Mederos, who lives in Clark County, Washington state, and worked at Tesla service centers before filing the complaint against him, said Musk's comments seemed to directly influence the behavior of his co-workers. the. "He made 69 or 420 jokes (...) which caused the technicians to be even worse."

The lawsuits were filed in California Superior Court in Alameda County.

The lawsuits are part of a flurry of high-profile legal activity involving the factory and its workers, including the $137 million award to former employee Owen Diaz in October after a jury found in favor of the elevator operator's allegations of racial abuse, discrimination and harassment. Tesla has also been disciplined for unfair labor practices at the plant: questioning employees about suspected unionization plans and threatening workers with the loss of stock options, among other labor law violations, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Labor.

“What we are addressing in each of the lawsuits is simply a shocking pattern of rampant harassment that exists at Tesla,” said attorney David A. Lowe, a partner at Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe LLP, which represents the women. "It's ubiquitous throughout the workplace and we now know it's not just on the factory floor in Fremont, but in other places, including sales centers."

Tesla did not respond to request for comment. The company has stated that it takes allegations of sexual harassment in response to worker complaints seriously, and does not tolerate retaliation in these cases. In high-profile litigation cases that draw attention to worker concerns, Tesla tries to reassure employees of its principles while also fighting the complaints themselves.

When a 2017 lawsuit alleged that Tesla was a "hotbed of racist behavior," the company published a blog post calling it a "hotbed of disinformation." Following the October jury's verdict in Diaz's trial alleging racist abuse, Tesla backed away from the verdict and said he was working to improve the employee experience.

"While we firmly believe that these facts do not justify the verdict reached by the jury in San Francisco, we recognize that in 2015 and 2016 we were not perfect," said Valerie Capers Workman, vice president of People at Tesla. “We are not perfect yet. But we've come a long way since five years ago."

male predominance

For years, Silicon Valley has faced criticism over the exclusivity of its “tech bro” culture, fueled in part by the low proportion of women on staff and leadership. Tesla said in its 2020 diversity report that women make up just 21% of its US workforce, and 17% of leadership.

"Although women are historically underrepresented in the technology and automotive industries, we recognize that we have work to do in this area," the company said in its diversity report. “We are taking active steps to increase our outreach to women and build an inclusive culture that supports their development and retention.” Increasing the representation of women at all levels, especially in leadership, is a top priority in 2021.”

Tesla requires many of its workers to sign binding arbitration agreements, according to court filings, meaning workplace disputes must be settled out of court. Lawyers in some of the sexual harassment cases are challenging those agreements as "unenforceable" as they seek to have their cases heard in open court.

Several of the accusations mirror the type of harassment that Barraza alleged in his lawsuit last month. They focused on the Fremont factory, where Tesla assembles vehicles and employs about 10,000 workers. Several of the workers said they were starting their careers when they arrived at Tesla and left horrified by the atmosphere there and the expectations it created for future workplaces.

Michala Curran started working at Tesla when she was 18, she said. In her first few weeks on the job, her own supervisor told her that with her “big butt” she should… be an exotic dancer, and tried to slap her on the butt while changing out of the outfit she had to wear when painting cars. of Tesla,” according to the lawsuit.

Curran, now 20, called it quits after about two months.

“I felt scared that I didn't know who to turn to,” Ella Curran, who was hired through an employment agency, told The Post. "Knowing that there are only men around me, not knowing if they can have the same mentality as the supervisor."

Alisa Blickman, 33, told The Post that her supervisor saw her stretch one morning and told her "I heard you don't like to yell loud enough." The same supervisor touched and rubbed her lower back, she added. That experience was common at the Fremont factory where she worked, she alleges in a lawsuit; they referred to women's body parts using the number system and were the subject of lewd comments.

“Personally, as a supervisor doing it to me, I didn't feel comfortable going to Human Resources,” she said in an interview. After rejecting her supervisor's advances, she was told that she should be moved to an outdoor work area known as "the shops," which Blickman called "one of Tesla's worst places."

Mederos began working at Tesla service centers in the Los Angeles area in 2016. He said simple acts, such as eating a banana or using a spoon, resulted in men making sexist comparisons and comments, allegations reiterated in his lawsuit. . The men whistled at her, told her "damn it" or encouraged her to show her skin, according to her. Her lawsuit alleges that Musk's actions, such as her joking tweets, did nothing more than incite such behavior.

“When Mr. Musk was doing this, everyone in the service center was reading the tweets,” her lawsuit says. "Managers and technicians would bring up the tweets, laugh at them and make their own jokes, curlying the sexual themes."

When Mederos complained that a manager was flirting and trying to put an arm around her while they were driving a Tesla, she said in a legal complaint that she faced retaliation and was unable to advance within the company, which ultimately led her to leave her job.

“When I started at Tesla, Tesla was going to be my career,” she told the Post. “I wanted to move up in the company; I was proud to work there when I got the job. When I left him I was devastated."

Samira Sheppard, who was employed at the Fremont plant from late 2020 to early 2021, said she was left with the shame, anxiety and emotional distress of the job she started when she was 19 years old. Comments male co-workers directed at her included: “Damn, you look good”, “Nice body”, “You look good for being so short”, “I know you look good down there”, and “I know you love me”. you would look good outside of work,” according to the complaint.

By Faiz Siddiqui