{"id":13785,"date":"2021-11-20T00:03:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T05:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/auto\/?p=13785"},"modified":"2021-11-20T00:03:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T05:03:53","slug":"tesla-sexual-harassment-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=13785","title":{"rendered":"Tesla worker alleges ‘rampant sexual harassment’ in lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Female employees at Tesla<\/a>\u2019s Fremont factory in California face \u201crampant sexual harassment,\u201d according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday. In a complaint with the state\u2019s Superior Court in Alameda County, Jessica Barraza, 38, a production associate with Tesla, said she was subjected to \u201cnightmarish\u201d working conditions over the past three years. Barraza\u2019s lawsuit describes a factory floor that looks more like \u201ca crude, archaic construction site or frat house\u201d than the site of advanced EV production.<\/p>\n

Barraza\u2019s allegations against Tesla are numerous. In one incident, the suit alleges a male co-worker stuck his leg between her thighs when she went to punch in after a lunch break. Amid the harassment, Barraza says her complaints fell on deaf ears. In one instance, she says a supervisor did nothing when she complained of a co-worker staring at her breasts. \u201cMaybe you shouldn\u2019t wear shirts that draw attention to your chest,\u201d her supervisor told her, according to the suit. Barraza told the man she was \u201cwearing a work shirt provided by Tesla.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter almost three years of experiencing all the harassment, it robs your sense of security \u2014 it almost dehumanizes you,\u201d Barraza said in an interview with The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, which was the first outlet to report on the suit. We\u2019ve reached out to Tesla for comment. The company does not typically respond to media requests. It closed its main press office in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The suit comes one month after Tesla was ordered by a federal court to pay $137 million to a Black employee<\/a> who said they were subjected to daily racist abuse at its Fremont factory. \u201cWe continue to grow and improve in how we address employee concerns,\u201d the company said at the time. \u201cOccasionally, we\u2019ll get it wrong, and when that happens we should be held accountable.\u201d Tesla is appealing the award.<\/p>\n

Tesla also isn\u2019t the only EV-maker accused of fostering a toxic workplace for women. Just days before its IPO, Rivian was sued by Laura Schwab, one of its former executives<\/a>. In her lawsuit, Schwab alleges the automaker fired her after she complained of a \u201ctoxic \u2018bro culture\u2019\u201d that saw her excluded from meetings and more. \u201cThe culture at Rivian was actually the worst I\u2019ve experienced in over 20 years in the automotive industry,\u201d Schwab said at the time.<\/p>\n

Barraza said Tesla’s human resources department has not addressed complaints she filed in September and October, and even disabled its mailto:hr@tesla.com email address for receiving complaints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barraza is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also said that like many “tech employers,” Tesla requires many workers to sign arbitration agreements, keeping workplace disputes out of court, but that her agreement’s “unconscionable” terms make it unenforceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barraza said she is on doctor-ordered medical leave, with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Information from Reuters was used in this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Female employees at Tesla\u2019s Fremont factory in California face \u201crampant sexual harassment,\u201d according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday. In a complaint with the state\u2019s Superior Court in Alameda County, Jessica Barraza, 38, a production associate with Tesla, said she was subjected to \u201cnightmarish\u201d working conditions over the past three years. Barraza\u2019s lawsuit describes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workers-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}