A woman who worked at Tesla through a staffing agency is suing both the electric vehicle maker and the Indeed Flex agency, part of job search site Indeed, for alleged gender-based discrimination while on the job.
The complaint alleges that the woman, Gigi Hayes, experienced discrimination while working as an assembler at Tesla in 2022 when another woman questioned Hayes for having a wife and made multiple questioning and negative remarks about Hayes' sexual orientation. The woman then asked Hayes probing questions about Christianity and the meaning of the rainbow symbol (widely used as the queer flag), according to the filing viewed by PCMag.
Hayes reportedly said in her initial message to HR that working with this person made her "uncomfortable," and was told that someone would contact Hayes about the situation. But the filing claims that no one made contact. After reporting the issue, Hayes' managers "significantly reduced their communication with her, and behaved as if they did not want to work with Ms. Hayes anymore."
About a month later, Hayes again contacted HR and expressed concerns that she was experiencing workplace retaliation because of her previous report to HR, the lawsuit states. Two months after that, Hayes was fired, and reportedly given "inconsistent" reasons for the firing not stated in the suit.
The lawsuit argues that Hayes was terminated from the company because she reported the workplace discrimination she experienced, and that the reasons given were just a "pretext." It further alleges that Hayes's gender also motivated the termination.
This is not Tesla's first workplace discrimination lawsuit. The company was ordered to pay $3.2 million last year to one Black former worker who won a racial harassment lawsuit against Tesla. And last week, a California judge found that a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit against Tesla could move forward, allowing up to 6,000 Black employees who worked at the company since November 2016 to take collective legal action. And in 2021, six women sued Tesla, alleging sexual discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has faced similar issues at X, which he owns, including accusations of discriminating against older employees as well as women. And the US Department of Justice sued Musk's SpaceX—which has seen hundreds of workplace injuries—last year for allegedly discriminating against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring processes.
PCMag reached out to Tesla and Indeed Flex for comment.