The nightmare he experienced while working as an elevator operator at Tesla’s California plant was revealed by Owen Diaz in court testimony on Wednesday.

The former employee cited the psychological toll caused by the barrage of racist abuse, threats and other incidents he received at his workplace.

“I recorded how my Spanish-speaking colleagues talked about me. “When I used the website to translate what they were saying, I realized they were making racist comments against me,” Diaz said.

I lost trust in people

The former employee also noted that racist incidents at an electric car factory in Fremont, California strained his relationship with his son, who also worked there, and caused him to lose trust in people.

“They made me feel less than human (and) made me question my worth,” Diaz said.

On the other hand, Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Tesla, put pressure on Diaz on Wednesday, asking him why there were no written complaints to his superiors about the threats he had received.

Diaz said he did not remember if he complained in writing or only orally, and accused the lawyer of misinterpreting his responses.

The five-day trial for damages begins after a jury decided in 2021 to find Tesla guilty of discrimination and order the company to pay Diaz $137 million.

Tesla says it does not tolerate workplace harassment and takes complaints of discrimination seriously. But an expert in the case testified that while Tesla adopted an adequate anti-bias policy, it failed to properly investigate and address complaints from Diaz and other black employees.

Source: Reuters.