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Update: Judge Reduces $137 Million Award In Tesla Racial Discrimination Case To $15 Million

On Wednesday, a federal judge decided to drastically decrease the settlement in a Tesla racial discrimination case from $137 million to $15 million.

As previously reported, Owen Diaz worked as an elevator operator for Tesla between June 2015 and May 2016. He sued the company in 2017, alleging a hostile work environment and racial harassment.

A federal judge has decided that he will no longer receive the $137 million after Tesla appealed the verdict.

Larry Organ, Diaz’s lawyer and founder of the California Civil Rights Law Group, told NPR:

That’s the maximum. It wasn’t because [the judge] found anything wrong with what Mr. Diaz said or that Mr. Diaz wasn’t injured or anything like that. It’s just based on a comparison.

Diaz claimed other people called him the n-word during his tenure at the company, including a supervisor who called him the derogatory term “more than 30 times.”

In a message sent to Tesla employees last year, the company stated the facts didn’t justify the judgement.

 … We do recognize that in 2015 and 2016 we were not perfect,” then-Vice President of People Valerie Capers Workman wrote. “We’re still not perfect.

Workman added:

We will continue to remind everyone who enters the Tesla workplace that any discriminatory slurs – no matter the intent or who is using them – will not be tolerated.

Diaz has a little over 25 days to alert the courts of his acceptance or rejection of the new ruling.

LaJanee