Tesla, the electric car maker led by Elon Musk, suffered another defeat on Wednesday in its bid to avoid a lawsuit filed by California authorities that accuses the company of racial discrimination at its flagship factory in the US state, Reuters reported.

A judge in Oakland, Calif., in an earlier ruling dismissed a counterclaim filed by Tesla with the state Department of Civil Rights that accused the company of racial segregation at its Fremont plant, saying black workers were harassed and discriminated against in wages, promotions and disciplinary sanctions applied in case of violation.

Tesla sought to have that lawsuit dismissed, saying in its own lawsuit that the agency failed to notify it in a timely manner of the allegations it made against it and that it did not give it an opportunity to resolve them amicably.

However, Judge Evelio Grillo granted the automaker a grace period until February 3 to file a complaint detailing the allegations against the agency.

Among other things, Tesla accuses the California Department of Civil Rights of adopting “underground rules” that would allow it to sue without following its own previously established rules for lawsuits.

The billionaire-led South African automaker also denies wrongdoing at its Fremont plant and says the lawsuit is politically motivated.

Tesla is giving Elon Musk new headaches

Last August, Judge Grillo rejected Tesla’s request to dismiss the case, saying that its allegations against the agency were not a defense against allegations of discrimination.

Also in August, another state agency in California declined to hear Tesla’s complaint that the Civil Rights Department was suing the companies without conducting a thorough investigation.

The car company is the subject of several lawsuits in California accused of tolerating discrimination and sexual harassment at its facilities.

Allegations of racial discrimination were one of the reasons Tesla was dropped from the S&P 500 ESG Sustainability Index last year, a decision that angered Elon Musk.

The California lawsuits, however, are just one of the major pain points that Tesla has recently caused investors in the context of its stock market collapse.

Musk’s company was recently fined in South Korea for failing to mention that its cars have a shorter range in cold weather.

In early January, the electric car maker announced a record number of deliveries in 2022 and a 40% increase from the previous year, but that was below its own forecasts and Wall Street expectations.