Apparently KPMG was discriminating against non-U.S. citizens in job postings? News to us. Now it’s news to you, too. Anyway, the firm was ordered to pay $306,656, the largest fine of the 16 total employers involved in the Department of Justice settlement. These civil penalties depend, in part, on the number of discriminatory advertisements employers posted. Details from the DoJ:
The Department of Justice today announced that it signed settlement agreements requiring 16 private employers to pay a total of $832,944 in civil penalties to resolve claims that each company discriminated against non-U.S. citizens in hiring. According to the department, each company posted at least one job announcement excluding non-U.S. citizens on an online job recruitment platform operated by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). One employer posted as many as 74 discriminatory advertisements on Georgia Tech’s platform, while several of the employers posted discriminatory advertisements on other college or university platforms as well. The department determined that the advertisements deterred qualified students from applying for jobs because of their citizenship status, and in many cases the citizenship status restrictions also blocked students from applying or even meeting with company recruiters.
So KPMG posted 74 discriminatory advertisements right? Seems a safe assumption since their fine is the biggest.
A lawful permanent resident filed a discrimination complaint with the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, alleging that a company advertised a U.S.-citizens only position on a Georgia Tech job recruitment platform. From there the DoJ discovered “a rash of other facially discriminatory advertisements on Georgia Tech’s job recruiting platform as well as other platforms operated by colleges and universities across the United States.”
Last year KPMG paid $10 million in an age and sex discrimination lawsuit that took ten years to work itself out so the bright side here is that A) this discrimination case was far cheaper to the firm and B) it didn’t have to drag out for a decade.
The DoJ is working on more settlements and is continuing investigations into additional employers. *Cue accounting firm partner anime sweats*
