Immigration Weekly Round-Up: Clothing Retailer Settles DOJ Discrimination Suit; Broad Immigration Relief Hangs in the Balance in Senate; New Jersey Welcomes Afghan Refugee Families
Friday, December 3, 2021
Clothing Company Settles Federal Charges of Discrimination Against Non-US Citizen Employees
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that the American retail company Gap has settled federal charges that alleged discrimination against non-U.S. citizen employees due to their immigration status. Gap will pay a $73,263 fine for the violations and provide back wages to employees who lost work as a result, ending an investigation into the company’s conduct that lasted over three years.
The DOJ alleged Gap contributed towards discriminatory behavior by the over-reliance on an electronic human resource management system and unnecessarily reverifying certain employees’ permission to work without any legal basis to do so. Federal law prohibits employers from unnecessarily reverifying a worker’s permission to work or specifying the types of documentation a worker is allowed to show to prove permission to work, because of the risk of discrimination based upon the worker’s citizenship, immigration status, or national origin. Employers must ensure that employees are permitted the opportunity to present any documentation allowed under the law to prove their eligibility to work and that no employee is verified more than prescribed under federal regulations.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/immigration-weekly-round-clothing-retailer-settles-doj-discrimination-suit-broad
