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Alex Corella said his colleagues called him after he made comments like "I'd like to bend her over and spread her cheeks."
The workers at the watermelon patch made sexual and racially offensive statements to Dobbins.
She started stacking boxes around her desk to discourage men from whistling at her because of the bad job she was doing.
More than 40 lawsuits have been filed against the company in the past five years, accusing it of fostering a sexist and racist work culture. Three of the cases are currently being pushed into private arbitration. In September, the Dobbins case was moved into an arbiter.
The electric-car maker was built by Musk as part of his utopian vision. The company's cars save lives, Musk has said, and he's set out to transform manufacturing, describing an "alien dreadnought" dream factory where all parts of the carmaking process are automated.
The Jim Crow Era environment that allows discrimination to persist is what some of the workers say stifled the futuristic dreams of the company.
The lawsuits paint a picture of a workplace where slurs, grottering, and threats were commonplace, and where the human-resources department failed to address workers' concerns. According to the lawsuits, employees who turned to management for help were reprimanded or terminated.
After almost three years of experiencing all the harassment, it almost dehumanizes you, says Jessica Barraza, who filed a lawsuit against the company in November. Insider tried to contact all of the former employees, but they either declined to comment or did not reply. The case will be pushed into private arbitration.
Musk didn't reply to questions.
The tribunal that will hear the actual facts and evidence, not in the press, is the appropriate place to respond, according to a statement fromTesla.
In the majority of the lawsuits, the carmaker has fought back. At least three cases have been dismissed. Most of them have been moved to private arbitration or are waiting for the hearing on the motion to compel them to do so. In October, the company said that it is working to ensure that every employee feels like they can bring their whole self to work.
There are signs that there are cracks in the armor of the company. The company lost two high-profile discrimination cases last year and is now facing government scrutiny.
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Each year, hundreds of thousands of electric cars are produced at the company's largest manufacturing hub in California, where it sells them for between $46,990 and $130,000. More than 10,000 employees work at the plant and face ambitious production targets as the company pushes to scale production by 50% a year.
According to a report, the Fremont factory produced more cars than any other plant in North America. The hub of the future plants is designed to be the model for the new factories that are planned for the coming year.
The number of lawsuits it faces from its workers has grown as its output and workforce have grown. More sexual-harassment and racial- discrimination lawsuits appear to have been filed against the company in the coming years, according to an Insider review of 46 lawsuits against the company. Women and people of color said they faced racist and sexist behavior.
Insider spoke to seven legal and labor experts who said that the number of lawsuits against the company should be a cause for concern.
Lisa Bloom, a California lawyer who has advised high-profile clients including Harvey Weinstein and Bill O'Reilly, said that it was an "an astounding number" for a factory with 10,000 workers. She told Insider that she had conversations with a customer about legal action against the company.
She said that most people who are victims of verbal or physical abuse are hesitant to come forward.
According to Deborah Gordon, a Detroit lawyer who has worked on sexual-harassment lawsuits against companies in the United Auto Workers union, automotive factories face up to a handful of sexual harassment and racial- discrimination cases per year.
In an analysis of seven automotive manufacturing plants in the US that have similar workforce populations and production levels to the one in California, it was found that Toyota's facility in Georgetown, Kentucky has 9,500 workers. All six companies require their employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses, which could keep cases out of the public eye.
In a statement to Insider, the company said competitors have been sued for discrimination many more times than it has.
The claim that there is an unusual volume of suits is false, according to the spokesman.
The largest auto assembly plant in the nation is located in the state of California, and it has the largest US workforce. A fair review of publicly available data does not support the claims of your experts, according to the company.
GM has zero tolerance for workplace harassment and discrimination in any form, according to a GM spokesman.
A Toyota spokesman told Insider that no one has filed a lawsuit regarding sexual harassment or racial discrimination at the company's largest US facility in Georgetown, Kentucky over the past five years.
There is absolutely no truth to the comments made byTesla about the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant.
Ford, BMW, Nissan, andHyundai did not respond to a request for comment on the number of discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits that have been filed against them.
While GM, Ford, and Stellantis are unionized in the US, Musk himself has had harsh words for the UAW and unions in general, a factor Gordon said could be contributing to the worker complaints.
Gordon said that the UAW is active in addressing these types of issues. In a factory setting, verbal harassment is fairly common, but a union adds protection for workers. It allows grievances to be addressed quickly.
The carmaker said in a 2020 report that men make up 80% of its total workforce and 83% of leadership. A lack of diversity in a company's workforce is a major risk factor for sexual harassment according to a labor expert.
The dominant group will use sexual or racial harassment to show others that they don't belong.
The company says it is a majority-minority one. According to the latest diversity report, people of color make up about 60 percent of the workforce. Black workers make up 10% of the US workforce, but only 4% of roles at the director level or higher.
The demographic of the factory has not been provided by the company.
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She said that her supervisor tried to slap her backside when she became an exotic dancer.
The Washington Post reported that Curran, a former production associate in the paint department, said that he was scared not knowing who to run to.
In the past five years, 24 women have sued the company, accusing them of sexual harassment, groped, or physically assault, and in some cases of not giving them pay raises or promotions. Most of the people who are involved are former workers at the factory. Over two dozen former employees sued their supervisors. A court hearing is scheduled for May, when the decision will be made on the motion to compel the case into private arbitration. There are 23 cases that have been moved to private arbitration or are pending a hearing.
Some workers sued their supervisors for threatening behavior. According to a lawsuit, a sales representative said her supervisor kissed her on the cheek and called her "the eye candy of the store."
In a separate suit, she said that her manager caused her to fear for her safety and referred to his penis as big down there.
In a lawsuit, a former employee alleged that her supervisor sent her text messages saying that he wanted to be intimate with her and that he used racial slurs.
Over a dozen employees have sued their supervisors for threatening their employment, and in some cases they were fired for rejecting sexual advances or reporting racist and sexist behavior to the company.
According to the suit, her supervisor threatened to send her to one of the least desirable working areas if she didn't respond to his sexual advances.
Employers are required to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace harassment. It can be held liable in court if a company has no way for employees to report harassment or does nothing to stop it. It is illegal for a company to fire an employee just because they reported being harassed.
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Workers at the company said they tried to get help from the HR department, but were ignored or reprimanded.
According to a lawsuit, employees at her service station in California joked that the company's HR function was notexistent. She said she was harassed by her supervisor and coworkers near daily, and she was unable to find contact information for the department. After she reported it, the company held a meeting where she said the supervisor called her a liar and an HR rep called her accusations aggressive.
The case has been moved to another county court, and David Lowe expects the case to be moved to private arbitration.
In 13 of the 46 lawsuits reviewed, the report sent to HR resulted in either no action or minimal follow-up. Twenty-two former employees said they were fired after reaching out to HR.
Lawrence Organ, the attorney for the man, told Insider that his client presented HR with a video in which another worker called him the N-word 22 times and detailed how he would chop up parts of his body.
I feel like everything was taken away from me, according to The New York Times.
According to the legal counsel for the company, the dispute should have been settled in arbitration, where the claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation would have been dismissed.
The company's human-resources department was under-staffed and inadequately trained, with the ratio of HR workers to personnel 1- according to a February lawsuit and three-year investigation. The Society of Human Resources Management estimates that companies in the US average over two HR employees per every 100 full-time workers. The company said it is working to improve training.
An additional training program was recently rolled out that reiterates the requirement that all employees treat each other with respect and reminds employees about the many ways they can report concerns, according to the website.
Some ex-employees said that the HR personnel were hostile towards them.
Malaisha Bivens said in a lawsuit that she met with a person she thought was an HR representative after she reported that a colleague touched her. According to Bivens' lawsuit, this person threatened her in a "harsh tone" and said she would be fired if she lied about the incident. Her lawsuit said that HR did not follow up on her complaint. The case will be private.
Another former employee, Kaylen Barker, said in a lawsuit that she was asked to sign a statement saying she was insubordinate after she reported that a coworker referred to her using the N-word and a sexist insult. The case has yet to be responded to byTesla.
The HR department at a large company is expected to ensure the law is not being broken.
In a small portion of the lawsuits reviewed by Insider, the HR team appeared to take action against harassers. According to the complaints, only four instances in which alleged harassers faced repercussions were cited.
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Wek is known for his hands-on approach. The CEO said he would work over 120 hours a week.
Musk's leadership style led several workers to believe that he knew about a hostile work environment at the factory.
Organ, who represents several former workers in cases against the company, said that they have had multiple witnesses that can speak to Musk at the factory.
One of the cases Organ has worked on has been dismissed, one is ongoing, and two have won against the company in court.
Four people said they contacted Musk directly about their complaints, while two others said his behavior on social media contributed to their harassment.
Marcus Vaughn, a former employee, said he was one of multiple Black employees who contacted Musk regarding instances of race-based harassment. More than 100 former employees of the company are in a class action. According to the suit, Musk sent an email to the factory workers to address the harassment.
Musk wrote in the email that part of not being a jerk is considering how someone might feel about a historically less represented group. It is important to be thick-skinned and accept an apology if someone is a jerk to you.
The class action suit was dismissed. The counsel for the automaker argued that the court should deny class certification because of the policy and practice of the company.
There is a case in Alameda County Court. The suit fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action against the company, which is why the case should be moved into private arbitration. Organ claims that the continued motions to compel arbitration are an effort to stall.
Musk has an active online presence, with his account on the site ranking among the most-followed accounts. The CEO of the electric car company frequently creates headlines and is scrutinized by financial regulators.
Musk made a joke about creating a college with the acronym "TITS" in a recent post on the social networking site.
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It is difficult to know the details of allegations against the company because of the mandatory-arbitration clause. In September, it was reported that almost 90 employment-related private arbitration complaints had been filed against the company. The company won 11 of the cases. Most were settled, withdrawn or dismissed.
The only known person to win a discrimination case against a company is a former employee. He secured a $1 million settlement in August after the company failed to stop Berry's supervisors from calling him the N-word. The carmaker denied the allegations in Berry's case and did not appeal the case.
In October, a San Francisco federal jury ruled that the company must pay over $137 million in damages to a former employee. The supervisor helped create a hostile work environment for Black workers by distributing racist sketches at work.
The company is in the process of challenging the verdict, saying the award does not correspond to the actual evidence at trial.
Helen Rella, a New York labor lawyer, told Insider that a successful lawsuit could open the floodgates, an issue that the board of directors ofTesla have expressed concern over in the past.
It doesn't necessarily mean that the complaints are justified, but it gives the chance for more workers to come forward.
Many of the lawsuits have been brought by a handful of lawyers who actively solicit workers for their clients in order to enrich themselves, and then often plant the same sensationalized, unadjudicated allegations to get more clients.
Organ told Insider that over 950 former and current employees of the company have reached out to him with claims of discrimination.
There is a looming legal battle.
In February, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued the company over allegations of systemic racial discrimination and harassment. The agency said it had received hundreds of complaints from workers.
The lawsuit was an attack against the last remaining automobile manufacturer in California, and it was always disciplined and terminated employees who used racial slurs or harassed others in different ways.
California said in its complaint that the reality of a company that profits from an army of production workers, many of whom are people of color, is masked by its brand.
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