Tesla agreed to enter arbitration that could resolve a lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that accuses Elon Musk's electric car maker of tolerating severe and widespread harassment of Black workers at its Fremont, California, assembly plant.
The EEOC said it is working with Tesla to select an arbitrator and that negotiations could begin in March or April. It also says both parties will submit a proposal to the presiding judge by June 17 as to what should be done if negotiations and mediation fail.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco agreed Tuesday night to postpone some evidence-gathering deadlines so the mediation can be prioritized.
Tesla and the EEOC did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.
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The agency sued Tesla in September 2023 during the Biden administration, saying the company's employment practices violated federal law.
It is alleged that harassment at the Fremont plant included racial slurs and the display of racist graffiti such as swastikas and nooses. It said some of the graffiti appeared on vehicles coming off the assembly line.
Tesla has denied that it knew about the harassment and did nothing about it, and accused the agency of “headlines chasing”.
The Austin, Texas-based automaker has faced multiple lawsuits over alleged mistreatment of workers at its Fremont plant.
It won a legal victory on November 17 when a California state judge ruled that more than 6,000 black workers at the plant could not sue Tesla as a group in a class action because many of the employees chosen to testify were unwilling to do so.
