Tesla faces a new class-action lawsuit over alleged wage law violations in California amid ongoing workplace bias and union-busting allegations.
According to Reuters, on the 6th (local time), two former employees of Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant in California filed a lawsuit in a Sacramento federal court on behalf of thousands of Tesla workers statewide, seeking over $5 million in damages.
They claimed that Tesla violated California labor laws by not paying overtime, not providing meal and rest breaks, not offering paid sick leave, not compensating for work-related expenses, and not providing written explanations of the quotas workers had to meet.
This lawsuit comes on top of Tesla’s denial of allegations raised in multiple lawsuits that the company tolerated widespread racial discrimination and harassment of black workers at its Fremont factory and other California facilities.
Afterward, Tesla settled a lawsuit from a former black factory worker under undisclosed terms after a jury recently awarded $3.2 million to Tesla in a lawsuit brought by a group of 6,000 workers and the California Civil Rights Organization.
In addition, Tesla has recently faced allegations that Elon Musk threatened workers with the loss of stock options if they joined a union via social media in 2018, thereby infringing on workers’ labor rights, and that the company illegally interfered with union activities at its New York facility.
In response, Tesla denied wrongdoing in the New York case, with Musk stating that he merely pointed out on social media that most union members do not receive stock options.
In a separate case last November, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Tesla did not violate federal labor laws by prohibiting factory workers from wearing T-shirts supporting a union campaign.
However, Tesla has not responded to requests for comment on workers’ claims at its Fremont assembly plant in California.
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