Tesla has been ordered to pay more the equivalent of £2.6million to an ex-employee who was subjected to racial slurs and harassment in the workplace.
A jury in the US ruled that the electric carmaker, headed up by Elon Musk, must pay $3.2million to Owen Diaz, a black former employee who worked as a lift operator at the firm’s plant in San Francisco between 2015 and 2016.
At the risk of stating the obvious, this case unfolded in the US but the core issue is a global one.
And despite an increase in conversations around racism, the research reveals that employees are still not comfortable having discussions around race at work. In 2021, the average comfort level was only 59/100 – a number that barely changed since 2018.
What else does this case, and recent research, show us about perceptions of racism in the workplace?
