Apple settles DOJ case over discriminating against US workers

Apple will have to pay $25 million to settle Justice Department claims, according to a report from the Reuters said.

The DOJ said in a statement that Apple illegally favored immigrant workers over U.S. workers, in violation of a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on citizenship.

The DOJ says this current settlement is the largest ever related to allegations of citizenship discrimination. Apple will have to pay $6.75 million in civil penalties and $18.25 million to an unspecified number of affected workers.

There is a statement from Apple, saying that they “did not unintentionally follow the DOJ standard”:
“We have implemented a robust remediation plan to comply with the requirements of various government agencies as we continue to hire American workers and expand in the United States,” the company said.

The problem lies with the PERM program – long story short, this federal government program is designed to make it easier for American companies to hire foreign workers who are in the country on temporary visas. To ensure that foreign workers do not accept jobs that could be filled by existing U.S. citizens and permanent residents, companies participating in the PERM program must advertise U.S. jobs in the same manner as they would for any other role. Thus, the use of foreign labor is only acceptable when the recruitment process has failed to find suitable American workers.

According to the DOJ, Apple did not advertise job openings eligible for the PERM program on its website. Then Apple asked applicants for those jobs to send paper applications, although electronic applications are generally allowed, the department said.

“These less efficient recruitment procedures almost always resulted in few or no applications for PERM positions from candidates whose work authorization did not expire,” the department said.