Tesla loses bid to move sexual harassment lawsuit to arbitration

Could 24 (Reuters) - A California state choose has rejected Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) bid to ship a lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment on the firm's flagship assembly plant to private arbitration, permitting it to maneuver forward in courtroom.

California Superior Courtroom Choose Stephen Kaus in Oakland denied Tesla's motion to compel arbitration in a short order on Monday.

In a written opinion launched on Tuesday, Kaus said Tesla had improperly pressured the plaintiff, Jessica Barraza, to sign an arbitration settlement after she had already stop her earlier job.

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"Principally, Barraza was ambushed," the decide wrote.

Barraza in the lawsuit filed in November claims workers and supervisors at the Fremont, California plant routinely made lewd comments and gestures to feminine staff, and that the company failed to address complaints.

The lawsuit is one in all at the very least seven pending in California state court docket to make comparable claims against Tesla. Kaus is presiding over five more of those circumstances.

Tesla didn't instantly respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

David Lowe, a lawyer for Barraza, known as the choice "a victory for public accountability."

"Due to this ruling... Tesla will be judged by a jury of Ms. Barraza's peers in a public courtroom," Lowe stated in a press release.

Together with the pending sexual harassment claims, Tesla is going through separate lawsuits accusing it of tolerating widespread race discrimination at its plants. A California choose last month awarded $15 million to a Black former manufacturing facility worker who said he was subjected to racist slurs and graffiti from coworkers. learn extra

Tesla has mentioned it does not tolerate harassment and has disciplined and fired workers who engaged in misconduct.

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Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien

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