Meta must face a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging it prefers hiring foreign workers over U.S. citizens, a California-based federal appeals court ruled Thursday, after the lawsuit was originally thrown out in late 2022.
KEY FACTS
The lawsuit alleges Meta violated Section 1981, a law prohibiting discrimination in contracts, by allegedly discriminating against U.S. citizens in its hiring.The judges in a 2-1 decision ruled that while citizenship discrimination differs from racial discrimination, which is the basis of Section 1981, it is not different in regard to its relevance to the text of the law itself, according to court filings.
The lawsuit was brought by software engineer Purushothaman Rajaram, who alleges that Meta refused to hire him because it allegedly “prefers to hire noncitizens holding H-1B visas to whom it can pay lower wages,” court filings show.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, has previously denied wrongdoing, according to Reuters.
Daniel Low of Kotchen Low, the firm representing Rajaram, told Forbes in a statement involved parties are “pleased that the Ninth Circuit agreed with our interpretation of Section 1981,” adding that: “Citizenship discrimination against U.S. citizens has become a significant problem in recent years with a number of tech companies improperly favoring H-1B visa workers over U.S. citizens.”
Representatives for Meta and did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment. . . .
Personally I don’t have a problem with the number of H1-B visas and I even think we should expand the program, make it easier etc…
Still, if the company is using the H1-B visa program because it failed at wage negotiations then the practice is wrong and I am glad Meta must face the consequences.
Next up: Grad students (I hope.)
According to the Department of Labor website:
"The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.
The law establishes certain standards in order to protect similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the employment of the nonimmigrant workers, as well as to protect the H-1B nonimmigrant workers. Employers must attest to the Department of Labor that they will pay wages to the H-1B nonimmigrant workers that are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment – whichever is greater.
According to ZipRecruiter
Given how many layoffs there have been in the tech sector recently I have believe that there are software engineers willing and able to work for Meta for the prevailing wage described above.
Thus, if Meta is hiring software engineers and FRAUDULENTLY CLAIMING it is unable to find engineers wiling to work for that wage then Meta deserves to be sued and found guilty.
Their penalty should be AT LEAST as large as the penalty in a fraud case where there was not even an actual plaintiff. . . . I believe that means
- $450 million, plus
- a 3-year ban from doing business in NY
(Same as Donald Trump)
Equal justice under law.
Ahhhhhhh…Hannity Land humor. Cheers. 
A little background to the case (which has been filed as a class action lawsuit):
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Prior Acts: In October 2021, Facebook settled a similar case the Department of Justice agreeing to pay $4,750,000 to the United States Treasury and $9,500,000 to a Settlement Fund for potential victims of Facebook’s discrimination.
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The Department of Labor separately found recruitment violations as part of an audit of Meta’s labor certification applications.
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Facebook employs 60,600 individuals globally, incl. (only) 34,634 in the US
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The primary plaintiff, Purushothaman Rajaram is a naturalized US citizen born and educated in India.
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Plaintiff alleges the company advertises some of its US-based jobs only in India, never advertises them in the US, that he had several successful interviews with the company and was suddenly rejected, without explanation, when they found out he was a US citizen and expected US citizen wages.
and
