Tesla sued by ex-HR, security staff for alleged racism, brawls, and drug use

A group of former Tesla staff, including HR executives, has filed a federal lawsuit against their former employer, alleging workplace racism, bigotry, physical and sexual assault, and drug use.

In a 159-page filing on Thursday, the former head of security at Tesla’s Fremont factory in California, Ozell Murray, and HR staff Linda Peloquin, Adam Chow, Tiara Paulino, Sharnique Martin, and Gregory Vass, presented a range of disturbing allegations about the conduct of employees, managers, and leadership at the facility, which employs more than 22,000 workers.

Murray, a former police officer, claimed his security team ‘routinely’ seized cocaine and fentanyl onsite and ‘pulled employees off the manufacturing line and sent them home for being alcohol-intoxicated and high on drugs’.

His team also confiscated firearms, investigated ‘acts of sexual deviance’ within the facility’s grounds, and described an environment where black and brown-skinned employees were ‘besieged with constant racial abuse, stereotyping, and hostility.’

“Many who have worked there have likened the workplace to the Jim Crow South; an environment in which Black employees and brown-skinned workers are besieged with constant racial abuse, stereotyping, and hostility,” the lawsuit said, adding that black Tesla employees complained about seeing racial slurs graffitied on walls across across the plant and “even on new Tesla vehicles rolling off the production line.”

The Tesla federal lawsuit also highlighted alleged abuse of Tesla’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy for drug and alcohol use, in which supervisors would have the security team escort supposedly intoxicated employees off the Tesla facility ‘without question’ even though they didn't appear to be under the influence. 

“As it turned out, many supervisors and managers were merely using the policy as a means to retaliate against their subordinates – and, in particular, when a line employee had turned down the supervisor or manager’s sexual advances,” the complaint states, adding that the zero tolerance policy was also used to retaliate against staff members because of their race, ethnicity, or because of a complaint the employee lodged against them.

The plant also failed to tackle multiple instances of sexual assault, ‘prevalent’ bigotry, and brawls breaking out between workers, the complaint said, attributing the significant number of “blatant racists and misogynists” in the Tesla Fremont factory as being due to ‘hastily-hired and poorly-vetted’ employees.

The complaint claims Tesla management ignored these incidents, and any violent or racist Tesla employees who were fired were regularly ‘loopholed’ back into the company via a temp agency.  It also detailed accusations of retaliation against whistleblowers, who were said to be either unfairly fired or forced to resign.

Murray, who claimed to be ‘outspoken’ over safety and security concerns, said he was fired because of 'poor performance’ despite being promoted five times and having a clean disciplinary record.  

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also mentioned in the Tesla employee lawsuit, particularly his supposedly ‘hands-on approach’ to the Fremont facility operations.

“Musk would hold meetings with line-level employees from every function of the plant – from the manufacturing line to operations to HR – and issue directives right then and there to resolve the issues employees raised,” the complaint said, claiming that major issues were then swept under the rug.

Murray and his co-defendants have sued Tesla for retaliation, wrongful termination, and failure to prevent unlawful discrimination, seeking compensatory damages, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, and exemplary damages.