as they can be paid less than American workers are paid.
Laurel Beeler, the US magistrate Judge in San Francisco, said that three US citizens who accused Meta of refusing to hire them even though they were qualified might pursue a known class action.
It is also worth mentioning that the plaintiff's IT workers Purushothaman Rajaram and Ekta Bhatia software engineer, both neutralize the US citizen data scientist Qun Wang saying that both were naturalized US citizens. Qun Wang also said that both of them applied for several Meta jobs between 2020 and 2024, however, have been turned down due to Meta’s “systematic preference”.
Further, in a statement, Meta said that the allegations that were brought to them were baseless and it would still continue to defend itself against them.
Menlo Park, a California-based company stated that there is no proof of them trying to discriminate, even saying that theory would have hired the plaintiffs. However, the judge cited statistics that show that 15% of Meta’s US workforce holds H-1B visas, which typically are used by foreign professionals, in comparison to 0.5% of the overall workforce.
In the lawsuit, there was also cited Meta’s October 2021 agreement for paying up to $14.25 million, which also includes a civil fine for the settlement of federal government claims.
Beeler also mentioned, “These allegations support the plaintiffs' overall complaint that they were not hired because Meta favors H-1B visa holders,”. Even more so, the government sued Meta in December 2020, a few weeks before President Donald Trump ended his first White House term.
Daniel Low, a lawyer for the three plaintiffs, wrote in an email “We are hopeful that the lawsuit will help remedy the favoritism towards visa workers that is common in the tech industry," also adding "Fully addressing the issue will require additional enforcement or legislative reform."
The case was revived last June, saying that the Civil War-era law barring discrimination in their contracts based on “alienage” protected the US citizens from bias, reported Reuters.
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