Tesla faces civil rights suit from California over black workers' claims of rampant racism with one saying the factory is 'reminiscent of the Jim Crow era'

 Tesla faces a potential civil rights lawsuit from the state of California over allegations of racial discrimination in its factories, which a former contractor alleges are 'reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.'

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Tesla said the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigated allegations of race discrimination and harassment in its workplaces, and gave notice that it has grounds to file a civil complaint against the electric-car maker.

It comes just a week after former Tesla contractor Kaylen Barker, who is black and a lesbian, filed a lawsuit alleging that the company ignored her complaints about shocking discrimination and abuse while she worked at an assembly plant in Lathrop, California.

'I feel like I have been tortured and sent back in time before African Americans had civil rights,' Barker said in a statement, adding that 'being a black worker at a Tesla's renowned California factory, is to be forced to step back in time and suffer painful abuses reminiscent of the Jim Crow Era.' 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seen above. The company warned in a filing on Monday that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigated allegations of race discrimination in its workplaces, and gave notice that it has grounds to file a civil complaint

Barker, 25, said she was 'violated physically, mentally and emotionally' while working for Tesla because she's 'an African American lesbian.' 

The suit, filed on February 1 in California Superior Court in Alameda County, alleges that a white coworker struck Barker with a hot grinding tool while calling her the N-word, 'stupid,' 'dumb' and 'a b***c.' 

Although the white coworker was fired after then incident, Barker alleges that the person was 'shockingly rehired' about two weeks later.

Tesla, which has abolished its press relations department and refuses to speak to the media, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Tuesday morning.

Last year, a California jury awarded former Tesla contractor Owen Diaz a staggering $137 million verdict after he sued alleging racial harassment at the Fremont factory.

Diaz's lawsuit described the Fremont, California, plant, as a 'hotbed of racist behavior' where he was subjected to daily racist abuse including the N-word over a course of 11 months from 2015 to 2016.

Tesla contractor Owen Diaz sued alleging racial harassment and won a $137M verdict

The 52-year-old contracted elevator operator claimed fellow employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti around the plant, while he said one of his supervisors drew a person with a black face and a bone in his hair and wrote 'booo,' short for 'jigaboo.' 

The supervisor then allegedly told him 'he couldn't take a joke' when Diaz confronted him. Diaz contended that none of his supervisors stepped in to stop the abuse.  

Tesla's head of human resources Valerie Capers Workman responded to the Diaz verdict in a blog post saying the facts in that case 'don't justify the verdict.' 

Tesla has filed post-trial motions seeking a new trial or reduction of the jury's damages.

But following the hefty verdict, other lawsuits have quickly followed. 

A worker enters a Tesla factory in Lathrop, California in a file photo. Former contractor Kaylen Barker said in a lawsuit she suffered abuse and harassment at the facility

In November, a female worker sued the company for 'rampant sexual harassment', claiming co-workers at its California factory commented on her body and groped her, and supervisors did nothing when she complained.  

Jessica Barraza, 38, filed the lawsuit in California Superior Court in Alameda County, describing 'nightmarish conditions' at the company's factory in Fremont. 

Barraza said in an interview with The Washington Post that she was just months in to her job as a production associate on the Tesla Model 3 when she began to experience near daily harassment, with colleagues making crude remarks about her body.

She claimed the CEO Elon Musk 'doesn't set a good example for the factory' by his sexually suggestive tweets, citing a recent one in which he joked that he was 'thinking of starting new university' dubbed the Texas Institute of Technology & Science.

Leaving it to readers to deduce the childish joke, the tweet does not state the acronym for this purported new university, which resembles a crude reference to part of the female anatomy. 

New York State Common Retirement Fund said on Monday that it has filed shareholder proposals with Tesla, Activision Blizzard and Starbucks, requesting they report on their efforts to prevent harassment and discrimination against employees.

The proposals ask the companies to disclose, among other things, the total number and aggregate dollar amount of disputes settled related to sexual abuse or harassment or discrimination.