According to a court filing in Oakland, Tesla female employees face rampant sexual harassment at Tesla’s Fremont Plant.
Jessica Barraza is suing the automaker after she experienced ‘nightmarish’ conditions as a night-shift worker at the plant. She alleges that co-workers and supervisors made lewd comments and gestures towards women regularly. This included several incidents where the comments or gestures were at her. She complained to supervisors and human resources, but neither took action on the allegations.
As per the filing, as a result of the comments and gestures, Ms Barazza now suffers from panic attacks and cannot return to work. In addition, she is on medication and in therapy but she is not the same person she used to be before working at Tesla.
According to reporting, Tesla has long avoided allegations of discrimination due to arbitration agreements in place at the Fremont factory. These agreements keep most complaints confidential.
However, in 2020 alone, Tesla had 31 complaints filed against them with California’s Fair Employment and Housing Department. The complaints filed were based on race, age, gender expression, disability and pregnancy. The majority of these cases had the Department issue right-to-sue letters, while dismissing a handful due to lack of evidence.
Tesla did not provide a comment on the suit.
