Facebook To Pay Up to $14 Million To Settle US Employment Discrimination Claim

 

Facebook has agreed to pay as much as $14.25 million to settle civil claims by the US authorities that the social media firm discriminated towards American employees and violated federal recruitment guidelines, US officers stated on Tuesday. The two associated settlements had been introduced by the Justice Department and Labor Department and confirmed by Facebook. The Justice Department final December filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of giving hiring preferences to momentary employees together with those that maintain H-1B visas that permit firms quickly make use of overseas employees in sure specialty occupations. Such visas are extensively utilized by tech firms.

Kristen Clarke, assistant US lawyer basic for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, known as the settlement with Facebook historic. “It represents by far the most important civil penalty the Civil Rights Division has ever recovered within the 35-year historical past of the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provision,” Clarke said in a call with reporters, referring to a key U.S. immigration law that bars discrimination against workers because of their citizenship or immigration status. The case centered on Facebook’s use of the so-called permanent labor certification, called the PERM program.

The US government said that Facebook refused to recruit or hire American workers for jobs that had been reserved for temporary visa holders under the PERM program. It also accused Facebook of “potential regulatory recruitment violations.” Facebook can pay a civil penalty below the settlement of $4.75 million, plus as much as $9.5 million to eligible victims of what the federal government known as discriminatory hiring practices.

“While we strongly imagine we met the federal authorities’s requirements in our everlasting labor certification (PERM) practices, we’ve reached agreements to finish the continued litigation and transfer ahead with our PERM program,” a Facebook spokesperson said, adding that the company intends to “continue our focus on hiring the best builders from both the US and around the world.” The settlements come at a time when Facebook is going through growing US authorities scrutiny over different enterprise practices.

Facebook this month confronted anger from US lawmakers after former firm worker and whistleblower Frances Haugen accused it of pushing for larger income whereas being cavalier about person security. Haugen has turned over 1000’s of paperwork to congressional investigators amid considerations that Facebook has harmed kids’s psychological well being and has stoked societal divisions. The firm has denied any wrongdoing.

In Tuesday’s settlements, the Justice Department stated that Facebook used recruitment practices designed to discourage US employees reminiscent of requiring purposes to be submitted solely by mail, refusing to think about American employees who utilized for positions and hiring solely momentary visa holders. The Labor Department this yr carried out audits of Facebook’s pending PERM purposes and uncovered different considerations concerning the firm’s recruitment efforts. “Facebook will not be above the regulation,” US Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda told reporters, adding that the Labor Department is “committed to ensuring that the PERM process is not misused by employers – regardless of their size and reach.”

This story has not been edited by Blueplanet staff and is published from a syndicated feed

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