Six new lawsuits have been filed against Tesla by current and former employees in Alameda County Superior Court, alleging sexual harassment. All but one of the women worked at Tesla’s Fremont, California plant.
Examples of the harassment each woman alleges she was put through were provided by Trident DMG, a public relations firm.
Michaela Curran worked at Tesla as her first job out of high school and says that her direct supervisor told her that with her “big butt” she should become a stripper while another colleague asked for a sexual favor in a parking lot.
Read Also: Second Employee Sues Tesla For Sexual Harassment In Less Than A Month
Alize Brown started working the night shift when she had a three-month-old baby. Her colleague called her a “cow” who was “milking” and referred to her backside as her “wagon.” When she asked her supervisor to speak to the harasser, he treated it like a joke and is also accused of looking her up and down in a lewd manner.
Jessica Brooks says she was harassed from her first day of orientation when her supervisor encouraged his male subordinates to check out the new girl. In an attempt to stop unwanted male attention, she stacked boxes to block her workstation from view. When she complained to HR, she says they already knew about the boxes and their purpose but had opted to do nothing about the situation. Following the complaint, she was moved and forced to learn a new type of work, not her harassers.
Alisa Blickman alleges that her supervisor would rub his hand on her lower back at the start of each shift and whispered a sexual comment in her ear. When she responded negatively, she says he threatened to have her transferred.
Samira Sheppard says she was subjected to a constant barrage of sexual comments by male co-workers and a supervisor told her colleagues that he could see through her shirt.
Eden Mederos did not work at Tesla’s Fremont plant, but instead at service centers throughout Southern California. She says she faced near-daily harassment from the technicians at her service center who would comment on her backside. She also says they made sexist comments about her, such as “A pretty girl shouldn’t be working in a service center.” When she reported a manager’s sexist behavior to HR, she claims the manager interfered with her advancement at Tesla and HR did nothing.
The women say they used various methods to protect themselves from harassment because of Tesla’s inaction. They stacked boxes, bought baggy clothes, skipped breaks, and asked to be moved away from their harassers.
These new lawsuits join two more launched by Jessica Barraza and Erica Cloud, also in California.
“Jessica’s story gave her colleagues the courage to come forward,” said one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, William Jhaveri-Weeks of the Jhaveri-Weeks Firm in San Francisco. Jhaveri-Weeks, added: “These many similar experiences show that this is a systemic problem at Tesla. Nobody deserves to be treated this way at work.”
