“America first”, always.
US authorities accuse the group of reserving certain well-paid positions for foreign employees to the detriment of US citizens or permanent residents.
To settle the lawsuits, Facebook agreed on Tuesday to pay up to $ 14.25 million (or 12 million euros).
The US Department of Justice filed a complaint at the end of 2020, believing that the social media giant had intentionally created a hiring system that prevented qualified Americans from having a chance to know certain positions, and therefore to run for them, by refusing, for example, online applications.
Priority to company employees, with a temporary visa
Mark Zuckerberg's group was in fact reserving these positions for employees already present in the company on a temporary visa and eager to obtain a green card, the ministry accused.
In his complaint, he mentioned at least 2,600 positions posted between January 1, 2018 and September 18, 2019, at an average salary of 156,000 dollars per year (134,000 euros per year).
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The Ministry of Labor itself launched its own survey earlier this year into the group's recruitment practices.
“Facebook is not above the law and must comply with our country's civil rights,” Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
Resumes sent by email will now be accepted
In a message on Tuesday, the group believes they have followed the rules, but said they have reached these agreements to end the prosecution.
This allows Facebook "to continue to focus on hiring the best workers, whether they come from the United States or elsewhere in the world, and to support (its) highly skilled visa employees who seek to obtain permanent residence, ”said a spokesperson.
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The agreement with the Ministry of Justice provides in detail for a fine of 4.75 million dollars (4 million euros) and the payment of up to 9.5 million dollars (8 million euros) to possible victims of “discrimination” because of their citizenship or immigration status.
The social network has also undertaken to train its employees more specifically in anti-discriminatory rules related to citizenship or migration status, to display its job offers more widely, to accept CVs sent by email and more generally all the applications sent by Americans.
According to the agreement reached with the Ministry of Labor, Facebook has also accepted audits of its practices.