Justice Dept. Suit Says Facebook Discriminates Against U.S. Workers

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice on Thursday submitted a suit versus Facebook for working with discrimination versus U.S. employees, in the Trump management’s newest activity versus huge technology firms.

In the grievance, the division’s civil liberties department stated Facebook “refused to recruit, consider or hire qualified and available U.S. workers” for greater than 2,600 settings, with an ordinary wage of $156,000. Those tasks rather mosted likely to immigrant visa owners, according to the grievance.

The activity complied with a two-year examination right into whether Facebook deliberately preferred supposed H1-B visa as well as various other short-lived immigrant employees over U.S. employees, the Justice Department stated.

“Our message to workers is clear: If companies deny employment opportunities by illegally preferring temporary visa holders, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable,” stated Eric S. Dreiband, the assistant chief law officer for the civil liberties department. “Our message to all employers — including those in the technology sector — is clear: You cannot illegally prefer to recruit, consider or hire temporary visa holders over U.S. workers.”

Andy Stone, a Facebook representative, stated, “Facebook has been cooperating with the D.O.J. in its review of this issue, and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation.”

The grievance comes in the middle of a reaction in Washington versus modern technology titans, with Google, Facebook, Amazon as well as Apple under examination for antitrust infractions. Bipartisan rage has actually placed in recent times versus the firms for information personal privacy misuses, the spread of disinformation as well as various other poisonous material on their systems, as well as grievances of anticompetitive methods that have actually damaged customers as well as small companies.

The fit contributes to Facebook’s problems in Washington. The Federal Trade Commission as well as loads of states are individually preparing antitrust suits versus Facebook for preserving its power with previous mergings of incipient rivals, such as Instagram as well as WhatsApp. The F.T.C. as well as state chief law officers are anticipated to reveal prepare for lawsuit quickly, individuals informed on the instances have actually stated.

For years, Mark Zuckerberg, president of Facebook, has actually made defending immigrants’ legal rights to operate in the U.S. technology sector a pet dog problem. In 2013, he as well as numerous close friends developed Fwd.us, a not-for-profit team that promoted an overhaul of migration legislations as well as puzzled for reducing the migration procedure for technology employees.

Cecilia Kang reported from Washington, as well as Mike Isaac from San Francisco.

This is an establishing tale. Check back for updates.