Tesla, facing a series of lawsuits related to sex and racial discrimination, has settled a lawsuit brought by a former factory employee who said he was fired after complaining of severe sexual harassment.
San Francisco U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed Tiyonah Turner’s 2023 lawsuit on Monday, a day after she and Tesla notified the judge of the settlement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Turner worked at Tesla’s flagship Fremont, Calif., assembly plant, where the company is accused in a number of lawsuits of failing to address rampant harassment of black and female workers. The settlement appears to be the first in a series of sexual harassment lawsuits filed against Tesla since 2021.
Elon Musk’s Tesla has denied any wrongdoing in the lawsuits, but Turner’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
In her lawsuit, Turner claimed that during the two years she worked at the Fremont plant, she was harassed about 100 times by male coworkers, including stalking and following her around the plant.
She claimed that when she complained, her boss told her, “That’s just how people are.” Turner was fired in September 2022, which she says was in retaliation for her harassment and reporting her workplace injury.
Last August, Orrick rejected Tesla’s proposal to send the case to private arbitration, citing a 2022 federal law that prohibits forced arbitration of sexual harassment and assault claims.
Turner’s claims are similar to at least six other lawsuits pending against Tesla in California state courts.
Tesla also faces a lawsuit accusing it of tolerating widespread racial discrimination at its Fremont factory and other facilities. These include a complaint from a U.S. anti-discrimination agency, a separate lawsuit by the same agency in California, and a class action lawsuit on behalf of 6,000 Black workers.
These lawsuits allege that black workers were constantly subjected to racial slurs and graffiti, assigned to less desirable jobs, and retaliated against if they complained. Tesla says it does not tolerate discrimination and has terminated employees found to have engaged in racist behavior.
