Tesla reportedly paid $1 million to former employee who said supervisors called him a racist slur

 According to Bloomberg Law, a former Tesla employee received a $1 million award from the automaker after an arbitrator determined that the company failed to prevent his supervisors from using a racial slur. Melvin Berry, a Black man, was hired in 2015 at Tesla's plant in Alameda, California. When Berry confronted him, he claimed a supervisor called him the N-word and then retaliated by forcing him to work longer hours and do more physically demanding work. Tesla has vehemently denied the allegations.

According to Bloomberg, arbitrator Elaine Rushing ruled on May 12th that Tesla was liable for the harassment Berry described. Rushing wrote, “Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe harassment.” She also claimed that a supervisor who issued a warning letter to Berry lacked credibility.

As the arbitrator's decision shows, Tesla argued that there was no written evidence that Berry had complained about supervisors calling him the N-word.

Arbitration proceedings between employers and employees are typically kept private, but according to Bloomberg, Berry's attorney filed a standard petition in court to enforce the arbitrator's order, revealing the decision. Berry's attorney, Lawrence Organ, told Bloomberg that he would not pursue further legal action now that Tesla had paid the award.

Berry is not the first employee to complain about racism at Tesla's Fremont plant. In 2017, former assembly worker Marcus Vaughn filed a lawsuit against Tesla, alleging that the company failed to investigate his written complaint that coworkers and supervisors had used the N-word to him. The Fremont plant, according to Vaughn, is a "hotbed for racist behavior." Vaughn's lawsuit, Tesla said at the time, was a "hotbed of misinformation." In April, an Alameda County judge denied the company's request to prevent Vaughn from pursuing class action status in the lawsuit.

On Thursday, an email to Tesla seeking comment was not immediately returned; Tesla dissolved its press office last year and does not typically respond to media inquiries.