Facebook to pay up to $14.25 million to settle U.S. employment discrimination claims By Reuters

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fb (NASDAQ:) can pay as much as $14.25 million to settle civil claims introduced by the U.S. authorities that the social media firm discriminated towards employees and violated different federal recruitment guidelines, U.S. officers stated on Tuesday.

The 2 associated settlements had been introduced by the U.S. Justice Division and Labor Division. The Justice Division introduced final December that it was submitting a lawsuit that accused Fb of giving hiring preferences to momentary employees, together with those that maintain H-1B visas that permit corporations briefly make use of overseas employees in sure specialty occupations. Such visas are broadly utilized by tech corporations.

Kristen Clarke, assistant U.S. lawyer basic for the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division, referred to as the settlement with Fb 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 stated in a name with reporters, referring to a key U.S. immigration regulation.

The case centered on Fb’s use of the so-called everlasting labor certification, referred to as the PERM program.

The U.S. authorities stated that Fb refused to recruit or rent U.S. employees for jobs that had been reserved for momentary visa holders beneath the PERM program. It additionally accused Fb of “potential regulatory recruitment violations.”

Fb can pay a civil penalty beneath the settlement of $4.75 million, plus as much as $9.5 million to eligible victims of what the federal government referred to as discriminatory hiring practices.