Oyogist has learned that Tesla Inc. has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $137 million (N56 billion) to Owen Diaz, a black former employee who was racially abused by fellow workers and supervisors.
According to Diaz, the “N-word” was constantly used on him at the electric-car maker’s northern California plant.
The federal jury had insisted that the company had neglected to take reasonable steps to prevent Owen, a lift operator hired in 2015 through a staffing agency, from being racially harassed.
The 52-year-old claimed fellow employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti around the plant, while he said one of his supervisors drew a person with a black face and a bone in his hair and wrote ‘booo,’ short for ‘jigaboo.’
