Facebook sued for giving preference to visa workers

Plaintiff Purushothaman Rajaram Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit in a California US District Court against Meta Platforms Inc., Facebook’s new parent company for employment discrimination.

Rajaram, a US citizen, alleges he applied for a Facebook position and accuses Facebook of preferring to hire visa-dependent workers for certain US positions. Rajaram alleges Facebook does this because it can pay these employees less than US workers to do the same work.

In 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Facebook for the same practices and resolved the claims through a settlement agreement. Specifically, Rajaram alleges Facebook violated 42 USC § 1981, which provides individuals equal protection under the law. Under the DOJ settlement, Facebook was required to pay a civil penalty of $4.75 million to the US, $9.5 million to eligible victims of Facebook’s alleged discrimination and train its employees on the anti-discrimination requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

A complaint was filed against Facebook in 2020 following a two-year investigation where the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) within the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ found reasonable cause to believe that Facebook engaged in a pattern or practice of unfair immigration-related employment practices violating 8 USC § 1324b(a)(1).

As remedy to the class action, Rajaram seeks:

[O]n his own behalf, and on behalf of a class of similarly situated individuals, declaratory, injunctive, and other equitable relief, compensatory and punitive damages, including pre- and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs to redress Facebook’s pervasive pattern and practice of citizenship discrimination.