Berry Melvin (Melvin Berry)

Berry Melvin (Melvin Berry)

Biography

2021: $1 million compensation for Tesla leadership racism

In early August 2021, it became known that Tesla was ordered to pay about $1 million to a former employee who filed a court complaint, claiming that he was called a word for the letter H while working at the electric car manufacturer's plant in California.

Melvin Berry was hired by Tesla as a material processor in 2015, but quit only 17 months after being harassed at work, according to court documents. In early 2021, Berry hired labor attorney Jeannette Vaccaro to represent his interests in private arbitration with Tesla. Vaccaro claimed that Tesla executives ignored Berry's complaints when he told them that his colleagues called him a word for the letter "N."

Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said in her decision that there is evidence that two Tesla executives used racial slurs against Berry and that this case caused him emotional and psychological harm. Rushing noted that case law clearly shows that one case when a supervisor uttered a word with the letter "H" to a subordinate is enough to consider it a serious persecution.

Although Berry was formally awarded $1 million, more than $755 thousand will go to pay for the services of a lawyer and legal costs. According to court documents, he will receive approximately $266 thousand in compensation for damage.

We hope that this award of more than $1 million will inspire Tesla to change and serve as a signal to all employers that harassment and discrimination have no place at work, "said Jeannette Vaccaro.

Berry's case is one of three racial discrimination lawsuits filed by former employees against Tesla since 2017.

Without exception, Tesla employees are required to take an anti-discrimination course in our company with more than 33 thousand employees, of which more than 10 thousand are only at the Fremont plant, so it is impossible to stop all cases of bad behavior, but we will do everything possible to bring them to zero, the company said.

Tesla has denied the allegations made by Berry and others. In a 2017 blog on the company's website called "Hotbed of Misinformation," Tesla states that it is categorically against any form of discrimination, persecution or unfair treatment of any kind.^[1][2]

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