On Tuesday, US officials stated that Facebook Inc has agreed to pay up to $14.25 million to settle civil claims by the US government that the social media company discriminated against American workers and violated federal recruitment rules. The two related statements were announced by the Justice Department and Labor Department and was confirmed by Facebook.
Last December, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of giving hiring preferences to temporary workers including those who hold H-1B visas that let companies temporarily employ foreign workers in certain specialty occupations. Such visas are widely used by tech companies. Kristen Clarke, assistant of US attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, called the agreement with Facebook historic.
She told, “It represents by far the largest civil penalty the Civils Rights Division has ever recovered in the 35-year history of the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provision.”
