Facebook will pay up to $19 million to settle civil claims brought by the US government that the social media company discriminated against workers and violated other federal recruitment rules.
The lawsuit announced last December accused Facebook of giving hiring preferences to temporary workers, including those who hold H-1B visas that let companies temporarily employ foreign workers in certain specialty occupations.
Kristen Clarke, assistant US attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division called the agreement with Facebook historic as it represents by far the largest civil penalty in the 35-year history of the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provision.