Facebook settles employment discrimination charges

Facebook Inc. will pay up to $14.25 million to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit that charged the social media company with deterring U.S. workers from applying to certain positions in favor of foreign applicants, the department said Tuesday.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor said it had reached a related settlement with the company.

The DOJ said the settlement resolves a December 2020 lawsuit that alleged that from at least Jan. 1, 2018, until at least Sept. 18, 2019, Facebook routinely reserved jobs for temporary visa holders through the “permanent labor certificate program.” Critics have said the law governing the visas makes it too easy to replace U.S. workers with cheaper foreign labor.

The lawsuit alleged that in contrast to its standard recruitment practices, Facebook’s recruiting methods were designed to deter U.S. workers from applying to certain positions, such as by requiring applications to be submitted by mail only, refusing to consider U.S. workers who applied to the positions and hiring only temporary visa holders.

The department charged the company with intentionally discriminating against U.S. workers because of their citizenship or immigration status in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The award consists of a $4.75 million civil penalty and up to $9.5 million to be paid to eligible victims of Facebook’s alleged discrimination, the department said. 

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.