Following allegations that he was fired for reporting safety concerns and because of his race, a former Tesla construction manager is suing the company.
According to Reuters, Marc Cage, a Black man, said in his lawsuit that he reported infractions that may have resulted in large-scale explosions at Tesla's Nevada battery production, as well as failures by the business to disclose on-the-job injuries.
"Tesla's commitments to unrealistic production goals and frantic efforts to ramp up its production, often to make good on rash promises, overrode any commitment to employee safety," the complaint said, according to the outlet.
Cage's complaint also alleged racially discriminatory harassment such as "virtually every restroom in Tesla's Fremont facility contained writings or carvings of racist symbols and slurs, including swastikas and prominent displays of the n-word."
Earlier this month, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a complaint against the same factory alleging racism.
The case, which Tesla called "misguided," claimed that the company permitted racial discrimination, adding to charges made in several other lawsuits against the world's most valuable automaker.
Previously, former Tesla employee Owen Diaz, who is also Black, sued the company in 2017, alleging "severe and pervasive racial harassment" at Tesla, including instances of swastikas and other racial epithets in restroom stalls.
Diaz was awarded $137 million by Tesla in October, including $6.9 million for emotional suffering and $130 million for punitive damages.
Tesla compensated another Black plant worker, Melvin Berry, $1 million earlier last year after he claimed his bosses did nothing after he was called a racial insult. In addition to his coworkers' habitual use of racist language, Berry reported swastikas and racial graffiti at the facility.
Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has escalated a battle with authorities who are looking into his social media statements, the company's treatment of its employees, and its testing of semi-automated driving systems on public roads.
Musk accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of being a multi-layered "corruption onion" earlier this week, after criticizing the agency of leaking information from a Tesla-related investigation the day before.
Tesla said earlier this month that it has received a subpoena from the commission over its compliance with a 2018 settlement over the CEO's remarks on taking the company private.
The company and Musk accused the SEC last week of harassing them with a probe to penalize Musk for being an outspoken critic of the government.
