Female employee levels sexism allegations against Tesla

A female Tesla employee who continued to work for the electric automaker contended in a lawsuit that she faced discrimination for being a woman, and was penalised when she complained.

A J Vandermeyden, 33, filed the suit last fall, but her case made it to the news yesterday with the publication of an interview she gave to The Guardian.

''It's shocking in this day and age that this is still a fight we have to have," she told the publication.

According to Vandermeyden she was paid a lower salary, was whistled at by male colleagues and though she found solutions to vehicle quality control issues,  she did not get promoted while male colleagues did.

The complaints come after allegations of similar discriminatory workplace practices at Uber levelled by former employee Susan Fowler, whose revelations on the matter, in her blog post, had triggered an investigation at the company.

Tesla is also facing workplace issue claims from factory worker Jose Moran, who had blogged about arduous working conditions at the company's Fremont, California, facility which rolled out the $100,000 Model X and S sedans.

CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he believed that Moran was a paid agitator for the United Auto Workers union, which had been trying to unionise the factory, and described the charges as "morally outrageous."

The lawsuit stated that Vandermeyden was hired by Tesla in April 2013 as a product specialist in the sales division and was promoted to engineering project coordinator in March 2014, in the paints department, and later to manufacturing engineer several months later.

She was transferred to the general assembly division the next year, where she was under the impression that she would be in line for further promotions and salary increases.

But she was subjected to ''unwanted and pervasive harassment'' by the mostly male staff, including ''inappropriate language, whistling, and cat calls,'' according to the lawsuit.