On October 5, long-hidden reports of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misdeeds began making headlines. Since then, dozens of women and men have come forward with their own stories of being propositioned, assaulted, and raped by film industry types.
But rest assured, reports of sexual assault and harassment can be found in every industry, and the auto industry is no different. Yesterday, a former Tesla employee filed suit against the automaker, claiming that he was repeatedly harassed and ultimately fired because of his sexual orientation:
[Jorge] Ferro, 35, began as an assembly line production worker in April 2016 at the Tesla manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. Soon after he started, a supervisor who trained him, Jamar Taylor, began harassing him and mocking his sexuality, according to a lawsuit. Taylor allegedly told Ferro his clothes were “too tight – gay tight”, repeatedly taunted him about his outfits and later said he was not “welcome” because he is gay. Taylor also “went on to suggest that [Ferro] had a lot of enemies because ‘everyone suspects that [he is] gay’”, the suit said.
Ferro became fearful when the taunts escalated to threats of violence, including “be careful” and a warning that “something might happen to his car”, according to the complaint. Ferro told plant manager Dave Rebagliati that he was gay and was facing harassment, and HR later removed Taylor from Ferro’s assembly line, the suit said.
The harassment didn’t stop, he said. Taylor allegedly began outing Ferro to other co-workers and continued to approach Ferro in the factory, at one point saying a new employee should not learn anything from “someone like” Ferro.
Ferro’s allegations are all the more shocking because Tesla has earned a perfect score on the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which grades companies according to how LGBT-inclusive their workplace policies are.
And as if that weren’t enough, three African American men have accused Tesla of racial discrimination, too.
Tesla’s response to all four cases?
Tesla did not address specific allegations, but in a series of statements called the claims “unmeritorious” and argued that it was was not responsible since the employees are contractors.
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