WASHINGTON—A New Jersey-based information technology staffing company agreed to settle a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the company of firing an employee for pointing out its allegedly biased hiring practices.
According to the settlement, Jersey City, N.J.-based Whiz International L.L.C. will pay the fired employee $20,780, plus a $1,000 civil fine. Whiz International also must submit to three years of monitoring and reporting by the DOJ.
The settlement was announced just one week after the DOJ filed a federal lawsuit against Whiz International, in which the company had been accused of directing a recruiter to target foreign nationals with temporary work visas and exclude permanent residents and U.S. citizens from consideration. After the recruiter told her supervisors that she was uncomfortable with the preferential hiring practices, she was terminated from the company, according to the Justice Department.
In a statement released Wednesday, DOJ officials said Whiz International's actions violated anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which bar employers from retaliating against workers who express opposition to any practice outlawed by the statute.
“Retaliation against employees for speaking up against potential civil rights violations will never be tolerated,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said in the agency's statement. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that U.S. citizens and other work-authorized individuals are not discriminatorily denied work opportunities.”