Tesla Inc.’s production floor is a "hotbed for racist behavior,"an African-American employee claimed in a lawsuit in which healleged black workers at the electric carmaker suffersevere and pervasive harassment.

The employee says he’s one of more than 100 African-AmericanTesla workers affected and is seeking permission from a judge tosue on behalf of the group. He’s seeking unspecified general andpunitive monetary damages as well as an order for Tesla to implement policies to prevent and correctharassment.

"Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at theforefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operatingprocedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era racediscrimination," the employee said in thecomplaint, filed Monday in California’s Alameda County SuperiorCourt.

Tesla has roughly 33,000 employees globally but has neverpublicly released its diversity statistics. More than 10,000 peoplework at its sole auto-assembly plant in Fremont, California, wherethe United AutoWorkers have launched a campaign to persuade workers to jointhe union. On Tesla’s most recent earnings call, Chief ExecutiveOfficer Elon Musk acknowledged that the company recently firedabout 700 workers for low performance.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marcus Vaughn, who worked inthe Fremont factory from April 23 to Oct. 31. Vaughn alleged thatemployees and supervisors regularly used the “N word” around himand other black colleagues. Vaughn said he complained in writing tohuman resources and Musk and was terminated in late October for"not having a positive attitude."

Tesla didn’t have an immediate comment on the lawsuit.

Larry Organ, an attorney at the California Civil Rights LawGroup, said that Vaughn reached out to him after the law firm suedTesla on behalf of other African American employees who complainedabout racial harassment this year.

A Tesla assembly line worker sued in March, claiming the companydid little to stop co-workers from harassing him. In August, ajudge sent the case to arbitration. A judge also partly grantedTesla’s request to compel arbitration in a case of a woman who suedin November 2016 complaining about pervasive harassment.

Musk email

According to Monday’s complaint, Musk sent an email to Teslafactory employees on May 31.

“Part of not being a huge jerk is considering how someone mightfeel who is part of [a] historically less represented group,” Muskwrote in the email. “Sometimes these things happen unintentionally,in which case you should apologize. In fairness, if someone is ajerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to bethick-skinned and accept that apology.”

“The law doesn’t require you to have a thick skin,” Organ saidin an interview Monday. "Tesla is not doing enough. It’s somewhatakin to saying ‘stop being politically correct.’ When you have adiverse workforce, you need to take steps to make sure everyonefeels welcome in that workforce."

The case is Vaughn v. Tesla Inc., Superior Court of the State ofCalifornia (County of Alameda).

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