Tesla is 'hotbed for racist behavior,' lawsuit alleges

Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) is being accused of allowing its California production plant to become a "hotbed for racist behavior".

In the suit, former assembly worker Marcus Vaughn, who said he was sacked from the electric vehicle maker for "not having a positive attitude", claims supervisors and co-workers called him the n-word, but his written report to human resources about it drew no investigation.

We were unable to obtain a copy of the lawsuit prior to publishing, and have reached out to Tesla for comment.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed November 13 at California Superior Court in Alameda County.

Only months after workers at Tesla's Fremont, Calif. auto plant complained about grueling work conditions, the electric vehicle manufacturer is once again at the center of a labor controversy.

The company denied the claims and said the decision was based on employee performance reviews.

Tesla doesn't do enough to stamp out the rampant racial discrimination at the electric vehicle's factories, according to a lawsuit several black employees filed Monday. He also claimed he was passed over for promotions because he complained to HR, according to Business Insider.

An African-American employee, who was working for Tesla before getting fired, accused the automaker of being racist towards people of color.

According to Monday's complaint, Musk sent an email to Tesla factory employees on May 31. "Sometimes these things happen unintentionally, in which case you should apologize", he wrote.

The California Civil Rights Law Group has worked on all three lawsuits.

The email drew criticism from The Root as well as California Civil Rights Law Group attorney Larry Organ. Organ's law firm sued Tesla on behalf of other black employees this year. "It's somewhat akin to saying 'stop being politically correct.' When you have a diverse workforce, you need to take steps to make sure everyone feels welcome in that workforce", he explained.

Other recent lawsuits filed against Tesla include claims that the company failed to give proper notice when laying off hundreds of workers, claims concerning anti-LGTBQ harassment, a complaint from a woman engineer alleging harassment, and a complaint from the National Labour Relations Board defending employee claims that Tesla attempted to suppress a unionization effort.

The company is also taking heat from the United Auto Workers union, which filed a federal complaint last month claiming Tesla fired factory workers who were trying to unionize.