Tesla loses bid to move sexual harassment lawsuit to arbitration

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

California Superior Court docket Choose Stephen Kaus in Oakland denied Tesla's movement to compel arbitration in a brief order on Monday.

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

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

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

The lawsuit is one in all at the least seven pending in California state court to make related claims towards Tesla. Kaus is presiding over five more of these cases.

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday.

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

"Due to this ruling... Tesla can be judged by a jury of Ms. Barraza's friends in a public courtroom," Lowe stated in an announcement.

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

Tesla has stated 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, Modifying by Rosalba O'Brien

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