Apple agreed to a $25 million settlement over claims that the company was illegally favoring hiring immigrants over United States citizens, the Department of Justice said.
A press release from the DOJ revealed that Apple agreed to pay millions in back pay and civil penalties.
According to the DOJ, the settlement is the “largest award that the department has recovered under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality act.”
“Apple had engaged in a pattern or practice of citizenship status discrimination in recruitment for positions it hired through [the permanent labor certification program],” the department said.
After the agency launched an investigation in 2019, it found that Apple did not advertise positions on its external job site that it aimed to fill through the PERM program.
“These less effective recruitment procedures nearly always resulted in few or no applications to PERM positions from applicants whose permission to work does not expire,” the DOJ said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated, “Creating unlawful barriers that make it harder for someone to seek a job because of their citizenship status will not be tolerated.”
“This resolution reflects the Civil Rights Division’s commitment to ending illegal discriminatory employment practices,” Clarke continued.
From The Blaze:
Apple said in a recent statement that it had "unintentionally not been following the DOJ standard," Reuters reported. "We have implemented a robust remediation plan to comply with the requirements of various government agencies as we continue to hire American workers and grow in the U.S.," the tech company stated.
