California’s civil rights company has knowledgeable Tesla that it has grounds to file a civil grievance towards the automaker following an investigation into “undisclosed allegations of race discrimination and harassment at unspecified Tesla areas” within the state.

Tesla revealed the discover from the California Division of Honest Employment and Housing in a monetary submitting revealed on Monday. Tesla obtained the discover on Jan. 3, the submitting mentioned.

Whereas Tesla moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, final yr, Elon Musk’s electrical car and photo voltaic enterprise nonetheless operates many services all through the state of California. Tesla operations there embody its first U.S. car meeting plant in Fremont, a analysis and improvement hub in Palo Alto, a design middle in Hawthorne, a foundry and a manufacturing facility the place the corporate makes power storage methods in Lathrop, and different subassembly vegetation, warehouses, and distribution facilities, together with in Lathrop and Martinez.

The DFEH discover to Tesla follows a string of complaints from present and former Tesla staff within the state.

In October final yr, a jury in a San Francisco federal courtroom determined that Tesla ought to pay a former employee, Owen Diaz, round $137 million after he confronted a hostile work surroundings wherein, he instructed the courtroom, colleagues used epithets to denigrate him and different Black staff, instructed him to “return to Africa,” and left racist graffiti within the restrooms and a racist drawing in his workspace.

Tesla mentioned in its monetary submitting on Monday, “The Firm doesn’t imagine that the info and regulation justify the decision” and mentioned it will enchantment the matter if it couldn’t in any other case get the damages decreased in courtroom.

One other former Tesla employee, Melvin Berry, was awarded $1 million in arbitration after he complained about comparable experiences whereas working for Tesla from 2015 to 2016. After the choice, he instructed Black Enterprise {that a} supervisor often used racial slurs, and when Berry complained, he was pressured to work longer hours with heavier tools.

Extra fits have been filed alleging racial harassment and discrimination at Tesla since Berry and Diaz filed their complaints. Final week, Kaylen Barker, a former Tesla employee who’s a homosexual Black girl, mentioned in a go well with that she was assaulted and verbally abused by a co-worker at a Tesla facility in Lathrop the place she labored inspecting brake elements.

The corporate and DFEH didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.