Facebook Inc. FB 1.62% has agreed to pay a financial penalty as part of settlements with the U.S. government that had accused the social-media company of illegally reserving lucrative jobs for immigrant workers it was sponsoring for permanent residence instead of searching for and considering available U.S. workers.
Facebook will pay $4.75 million to the U.S. government and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims of the alleged discrimination, the Justice Department said, in what it called the largest fine and financial award its civil-rights division has ever made.
Also, as part of the settlement, the Labor Department will look into Facebook’s current program to help obtain applications for foreign workers and any future filed ones for the next three years.
“Facebook is not above the law and must comply with our nation’s federal civil-rights laws including those that prohibit discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil-rights division.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Companies sponsoring workers for employment-based green cards are required to show as part of the application process that they couldn’t find any qualified American workers to fill the job.
Justice Department officials previously said their investigation kicked off when Facebook filed an application with the Labor Department to hire a foreign worker as an art director, a role that requires a bachelor’s degree and two years of experience. The officials said Facebook should have been able to find an American to fill that type of job. Other positions included a number of software jobs, as well as nontechnical positions.
The tech industry broadly relies on H-1B visas to plug gaps in their technical workforce, and they say it is essential to building the software that powers products such as the Facebook news feed. Tech executives have said there aren’t enough American students graduating with science and engineering degrees to meet their demand, a problem they say is only worsening as products grow more complex and reliant on advanced technology such as artificial intelligence.
Facebook, under the settlement, also will be required to train its employees on anti-discrimination requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act, conduct more expansive advertising and recruitment for its job opportunities for all permanent labor certification programs and accept electronic resumes and applications for U.S. workers who apply, the Justice Department said.
Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at [email protected]
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