Tesla loses bid to maneuver sexual harassment lawsuit to arbitration

Might 24 (Reuters) - A California state choose has rejected Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) bid to send 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 Court Decide Stephen Kaus in Oakland denied Tesla's movement to compel arbitration in a short order on Monday.

In a written opinion launched on Tuesday, Kaus stated Tesla had improperly pressured the plaintiff, Jessica Barraza, to sign an arbitration agreement after she had already quit her previous job.

Register

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

Barraza within the lawsuit filed in November claims employees and supervisors on the Fremont, California plant routinely made lewd feedback and gestures to female employees, and that the corporate failed to handle complaints.

The lawsuit is certainly one of a minimum of seven pending in California state court docket to make similar claims in opposition to Tesla. Kaus is presiding over five extra of these cases.

Tesla didn't instantly reply to a request for touch upon Tuesday.

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

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

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

Tesla has said it does not tolerate harassment and has disciplined and fired employees who engaged in misconduct.

Register

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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.