The state of California has sued Tesla over allegations of historical discrimination and harassment of black employees at its San Francisco Bay factory.

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) reportedly said the lawsuit was the culmination of complaints by hundreds of staff on the production line that are believed to date from 2015 to 2019.

Tesla had previously warned investors of the looming case and used a blog post to describe it as “misguided”, claiming the department had “never once raised any concern” about its workplace practices following a three-year investigation.

Details of the case, which are yet to be made public, were reported by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

They quoted the head of the DFEH, Kevin Kish, as saying it had “found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion creating a hostile work environment.”

The lawsuit follows a jury award of $137m (£101m) to a former worker who had complained of “daily racist epithets” over a two-year period.

Owen Diaz said employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the plant and that supervisors failed to stop the abuse.

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Tesla, which is appealing against the verdict, used its blog post to insist that it had “always disciplined and terminated employees who engage in misconduct, including those who use racial slurs or harass others.”

It urged the DFEH to pause its case and seek Tesla’s side of the story.

“Attacking a company like Tesla that has done so much good for California should not be the overriding aim of a state agency with prosecutorial authority,” the blog said.

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