5 ms·

Ex-Tesla Employee Called Racial Slur Wins Rare $1M Award

35 points by mseidl 5y ago

damagednoob 5y ago
"...court filings reveal that the arbitrator found Berry’s allegations more credible than Tesla’s denials, ..." So this was a he said/she said case?
- maccard 5y ago
  No. It was arbitration, not a case first off. Secondly berry's allegations may be backed up by actual proof, which is not discussed in this article. Thirdly, almost all cases (short of DNA proof) are they-said, and it's up to an independent third party to find out where the truth lies.
meowface 5y ago
>caps years of complaints from Black workers that Tesla turned a blind eye to the commonplace use of racial slurs on the assembly line and was slow to clean up graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols scrawled in common areas Is this a shitty middle school or a company? I would imagine it's not very easy to get a job at Tesla, including for assembly line work. I'd be shocked if it happened once, let alone repeatedly, and let alone with a slow clean-up response. If it were one employee making the accusation, I'd believe it, and since it's allegedly multiple employees, I especially doubt it's false.
- sergiomattei 5y ago
  It all comes from the top. Elon Musk is a wannabe edgelord and that culture cascades down throughout his companies.
  - ben_w 5y ago
    Musk’s tweets include a lot of memes, including drugs memes, yes. However, I have not seen even one thing from Musk personally which is a racial slur I’m familiar with[0], nor anything politically authoritarian — if anything, he seems anarchic. All that said, I’m glad this person got justice, and it’s shameful it took so long. [0] racial slurs vary from place to place, so perhaps I’m just blind to them?
    - whack 5y ago
      I'm no musk expert but he once got into a twitter fight where he called the guy a pedo. Which he later categorized as a "generic insult." To be clear, pedo is not racial, but it is certainly a slur. When you have a CEO publicly calling someone a pedo as a generic insult, it's easy to see how that desensitizes workers towards other slurs being used casully. Not saying that Musk should be personally blamed for whatever racist hotbeds exist in Tesla. But as a CEO, you really need to be a role model, because anything you do will be magnified 10x by others.
maccard 5y ago
Slightly off topic, but the biggest eye opener in this article for me was this: > Three-quarters of the $1.02 million award is for Berry’s attorneys’ fees and legal costs. Rushing also directed Tesla to pay the ex-employee $266,278.50 in damages, including $100,000 to compensate for emotional distress. People here on HN can be very quick to make the claim "it's illegal to do X" as though that solves the problem. This appears to be about as clear cut a case as you could imagine (for it to be granted against Tesla in arbitration). Could you imagine spending 4 years and $750,000 for a _chance_ at being told you were right, and rewarded less than you souos have made if you had just continued working for them over that time. Back on topic, this man was treated horrifyingly, and Tesla's defense of "is absolutely against any form of discrimination, harassment, or unfair treatment of any kind" is laughable, it must be such a slap in the face for Mr. Berry to be told that by an army of lawyers after going through what he did.
- aquadrop 5y ago
  yeah, the real winners here seems to be lawyers.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Could you imagine spending 4 years and $750,000 for a _chance_ at being told you were right Did Berry spend $750,000? A $750,000 attorneys' fees award doesn't imply that he paid them anything, or that he would have had to pay them anything if he'd lost the case.
  - maccard 5y ago
    You're right there's some subtlety in the wording, and my simplification of the figures doesn't help. It doesn't change the fact that he didn't get a 1 million dollar award personally, and that legal fees of 750,000 were paid from that award. We don't know what he wouls have had to pay if he lost, but it I was reading this as someone going through an abusive workplace and considerih arbitration, the fear of even being asked for 10% of that 750k legal bill would push me to not do it.
    - 5y ago
jmeister 5y ago
This is ridiculous. The CRA overreach starting from the 60s is reaching reduction-ad-absurdum levels now. Do progressives realize this stuff makes things worse for all parties involved? Why would anyone hire women or URMs in 2021, unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? Race/gender relations are worse than they were in the 50s-60s. I wonder how the activists would’ve felt to see their hard-fought gains squandered by immature cynics 60 years later. Utterly tragic. EDIT: 1. CRA-woke connection: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-j... The author is sharp policy wonk, he traces the evolution of the abuse of CRA from the 60s onwards, explosion of HR bureaucracies, and the wide ranging consequences in academia and industry. 2. Even if the allegations are 100% true, the financial aspects are disgusting. This doesn’t merit $1M, and the lawyer pocketing most of it makes it worse. This little case is being covered on national media. Now Tesla can handle the PR, but what if this happened at a startup? There is no sense of proportionality to the woke justice system. 3. About hiring URMs/women: it’s obvious that such a hire is a ticking time bomb. The media is shameless in exaggerating even the tiniest issues. Both the laws and the cultural norms are massively in favor or minorities/women. On top of this one has to work extra hard to find qualified candidates due to downstream issues. At some point it’s natural to ask: why? And the only answer is: the state is forcing you to.
- ben0x539 5y ago
  > Why would anyone hire women or URMs in 2021, unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? I don't understand. Are you saying women or URMs are not currently being hired?
  - nix23 5y ago
    He's maybe a manager at blizzard who whats to prevent further damage by removing potential victims instead of changing the work culture.
- spoonjim 5y ago
  > This is ridiculous. The CRA overreach starting from the 60s is reaching reduction-ad-absurdum levels now. It’s “ridiculous” that you can be sued by a black employee whose boss calls him “nigger” at work? What a sick hill to die on. > Do progressives realize this stuff makes things worse for all parties involved? Worse for who? The companies who want to call their black employees “niggers”? Who else does it make things worse for? > Why would anyone hire women or URMs unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? There are laws against gender and race discrimination in hiring. Essentially, the state does force them at gunpoint. > Race/gender relations are worse than they were in the 50s-60s. LOL.
sneak 5y ago
It's a shame that companies that need to scale a lot and quickly can't be more choosy in who they hire. Building a manufacturing workforce free of idiot rednecks shouldn't be as difficult as it is today. :/
- bserge 5y ago
  They go for "redneck idiots" because they get the job done well for less.
  - sneak 5y ago
    Hurling racist slurs at your coworkers is not getting the "job done well". Manufacturing is not a solo activity.
    - randompwd 5y ago
      > free of idiot rednecks > Hurling racist slurs Hmmmmm...irony
    - bserge 5y ago
      Plenty of seemingly smart or even "woke" people have some mental derps that make them antivaxxers, antisemites, racists, xenophobes. How employees treat each other should be the factory's business, but often is not. Or it just slips under the radar. As long as the job gets done.
- randyrand 5y ago
  isnt rednecks a racial slur for white people?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    Depends on your point of view. It's certainly not synonymous with whites. It originates as a slur against rural people and retains some of that sense -- you wouldn't talk about "Seattle rednecks". But you could interpret it as an ethnic slur against certain specific groups that are white, e.g. Appalachians.
moksly 5y ago
> Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe harassment What? Co-workers bantering, maybe, but a manager or supervisor doing something like that in my country would make them virtually unemployable. When would you ever call a subordinate something like that?
- slim 5y ago
  Maybe you can do it if you're black yourself and have a lot of familiarity with the person you called that name. But even if it was the case, justice is blind
  - Infinitesimus 5y ago
    That's unlikely to be the case given the lawsuit. Also, that's the difference between the hard "r" and the "a". You will be hard pressed to find a black person using the hard "r".
    - listless 5y ago
      I don’t think context matters when it comes to that word. See these examples… https://time.com/5706848/black-security-guard-wisconsin-n-word/ https://time.com/5706848/black-security-guard-wisconsin-n-wo... https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/7/17/17581558/papa-john-n-word-resignation https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/7/17/17581558/papa-john-... https://variety.com/2018/film/news/jonathan-friedland-netflix-firing-1202994786/ https://variety.com/2018/film/news/jonathan-friedland-netfli...
quaffapint 5y ago
I used to work for a credit card company. There was an employee that ran his mortgage business on the side during most of the day at work. So, the company went to fire him. He claimed racism (he was Indian) and sued for $1M. The credit card company not wanting any bad publicity settled giving him nearly that entire amount.

35 points by mseidl 5y ago

"...court filings reveal that the arbitrator found Berry’s allegations more credible than Tesla’s denials, ..." So this was a he said/she said case?

maccard 5y ago
No. It was arbitration, not a case first off. Secondly berry's allegations may be backed up by actual proof, which is not discussed in this article. Thirdly, almost all cases (short of DNA proof) are they-said, and it's up to an independent third party to find out where the truth lies.

meowface 5y ago

>caps years of complaints from Black workers that Tesla turned a blind eye to the commonplace use of racial slurs on the assembly line and was slow to clean up graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols scrawled in common areas Is this a shitty middle school or a company? I would imagine it's not very easy to get a job at Tesla, including for assembly line work. I'd be shocked if it happened once, let alone repeatedly, and let alone with a slow clean-up response. If it were one employee making the accusation, I'd believe it, and since it's allegedly multiple employees, I especially doubt it's false.

sergiomattei 5y ago
It all comes from the top. Elon Musk is a wannabe edgelord and that culture cascades down throughout his companies.
- ben_w 5y ago
  Musk’s tweets include a lot of memes, including drugs memes, yes. However, I have not seen even one thing from Musk personally which is a racial slur I’m familiar with[0], nor anything politically authoritarian — if anything, he seems anarchic. All that said, I’m glad this person got justice, and it’s shameful it took so long. [0] racial slurs vary from place to place, so perhaps I’m just blind to them?
  - whack 5y ago
    I'm no musk expert but he once got into a twitter fight where he called the guy a pedo. Which he later categorized as a "generic insult." To be clear, pedo is not racial, but it is certainly a slur. When you have a CEO publicly calling someone a pedo as a generic insult, it's easy to see how that desensitizes workers towards other slurs being used casully. Not saying that Musk should be personally blamed for whatever racist hotbeds exist in Tesla. But as a CEO, you really need to be a role model, because anything you do will be magnified 10x by others.

maccard 5y ago

Slightly off topic, but the biggest eye opener in this article for me was this: > Three-quarters of the $1.02 million award is for Berry’s attorneys’ fees and legal costs. Rushing also directed Tesla to pay the ex-employee $266,278.50 in damages, including $100,000 to compensate for emotional distress. People here on HN can be very quick to make the claim "it's illegal to do X" as though that solves the problem. This appears to be about as clear cut a case as you could imagine (for it to be granted against Tesla in arbitration). Could you imagine spending 4 years and $750,000 for a _chance_ at being told you were right, and rewarded less than you souos have made if you had just continued working for them over that time. Back on topic, this man was treated horrifyingly, and Tesla's defense of "is absolutely against any form of discrimination, harassment, or unfair treatment of any kind" is laughable, it must be such a slap in the face for Mr. Berry to be told that by an army of lawyers after going through what he did.

aquadrop 5y ago
yeah, the real winners here seems to be lawyers.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> Could you imagine spending 4 years and $750,000 for a _chance_ at being told you were right Did Berry spend $750,000? A $750,000 attorneys' fees award doesn't imply that he paid them anything, or that he would have had to pay them anything if he'd lost the case.
- maccard 5y ago
  You're right there's some subtlety in the wording, and my simplification of the figures doesn't help. It doesn't change the fact that he didn't get a 1 million dollar award personally, and that legal fees of 750,000 were paid from that award. We don't know what he wouls have had to pay if he lost, but it I was reading this as someone going through an abusive workplace and considerih arbitration, the fear of even being asked for 10% of that 750k legal bill would push me to not do it.
  - 5y ago

jmeister 5y ago

This is ridiculous. The CRA overreach starting from the 60s is reaching reduction-ad-absurdum levels now. Do progressives realize this stuff makes things worse for all parties involved? Why would anyone hire women or URMs in 2021, unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? Race/gender relations are worse than they were in the 50s-60s. I wonder how the activists would’ve felt to see their hard-fought gains squandered by immature cynics 60 years later. Utterly tragic. EDIT: 1. CRA-woke connection: https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-j... The author is sharp policy wonk, he traces the evolution of the abuse of CRA from the 60s onwards, explosion of HR bureaucracies, and the wide ranging consequences in academia and industry. 2. Even if the allegations are 100% true, the financial aspects are disgusting. This doesn’t merit $1M, and the lawyer pocketing most of it makes it worse. This little case is being covered on national media. Now Tesla can handle the PR, but what if this happened at a startup? There is no sense of proportionality to the woke justice system. 3. About hiring URMs/women: it’s obvious that such a hire is a ticking time bomb. The media is shameless in exaggerating even the tiniest issues. Both the laws and the cultural norms are massively in favor or minorities/women. On top of this one has to work extra hard to find qualified candidates due to downstream issues. At some point it’s natural to ask: why? And the only answer is: the state is forcing you to.

ben0x539 5y ago
> Why would anyone hire women or URMs in 2021, unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? I don't understand. Are you saying women or URMs are not currently being hired?
- nix23 5y ago
  He's maybe a manager at blizzard who whats to prevent further damage by removing potential victims instead of changing the work culture.
spoonjim 5y ago
> This is ridiculous. The CRA overreach starting from the 60s is reaching reduction-ad-absurdum levels now. It’s “ridiculous” that you can be sued by a black employee whose boss calls him “nigger” at work? What a sick hill to die on. > Do progressives realize this stuff makes things worse for all parties involved? Worse for who? The companies who want to call their black employees “niggers”? Who else does it make things worse for? > Why would anyone hire women or URMs unless forced to by the state at gunpoint? There are laws against gender and race discrimination in hiring. Essentially, the state does force them at gunpoint. > Race/gender relations are worse than they were in the 50s-60s. LOL.

sneak 5y ago

It's a shame that companies that need to scale a lot and quickly can't be more choosy in who they hire. Building a manufacturing workforce free of idiot rednecks shouldn't be as difficult as it is today. :/

bserge 5y ago
They go for "redneck idiots" because they get the job done well for less.
- sneak 5y ago
  Hurling racist slurs at your coworkers is not getting the "job done well". Manufacturing is not a solo activity.
  - randompwd 5y ago
    > free of idiot rednecks > Hurling racist slurs Hmmmmm...irony
  - bserge 5y ago
    Plenty of seemingly smart or even "woke" people have some mental derps that make them antivaxxers, antisemites, racists, xenophobes. How employees treat each other should be the factory's business, but often is not. Or it just slips under the radar. As long as the job gets done.
randyrand 5y ago
isnt rednecks a racial slur for white people?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Depends on your point of view. It's certainly not synonymous with whites. It originates as a slur against rural people and retains some of that sense -- you wouldn't talk about "Seattle rednecks". But you could interpret it as an ethnic slur against certain specific groups that are white, e.g. Appalachians.

moksly 5y ago

> Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe harassment What? Co-workers bantering, maybe, but a manager or supervisor doing something like that in my country would make them virtually unemployable. When would you ever call a subordinate something like that?

slim 5y ago
Maybe you can do it if you're black yourself and have a lot of familiarity with the person you called that name. But even if it was the case, justice is blind
- Infinitesimus 5y ago
  That's unlikely to be the case given the lawsuit. Also, that's the difference between the hard "r" and the "a". You will be hard pressed to find a black person using the hard "r".
  - listless 5y ago
    I don’t think context matters when it comes to that word. See these examples… https://time.com/5706848/black-security-guard-wisconsin-n-word/ https://time.com/5706848/black-security-guard-wisconsin-n-wo... https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/7/17/17581558/papa-john-n-word-resignation https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/7/17/17581558/papa-john-... https://variety.com/2018/film/news/jonathan-friedland-netflix-firing-1202994786/ https://variety.com/2018/film/news/jonathan-friedland-netfli...

quaffapint 5y ago

I used to work for a credit card company. There was an employee that ran his mortgage business on the side during most of the day at work. So, the company went to fire him. He claimed racism (he was Indian) and sued for $1M. The credit card company not wanting any bad publicity settled giving him nearly that entire amount.