Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice announced a $5 million settlement of Title VII and related claims brought against Instacart, which alleged that the company favored foreign-born applicants over U.S. workers. The EEOC claimed that Instacart used the federal Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program to facilitate applications filed by persons with temporary labor certificates in comparison to U.S. citizens. For example, the agency alleged that the company allowed foreign applicants to electronically submit application materials while U.S. workers had to use physical mail, thereby slowing down the application process.

This lawsuit is one of a number brought under an EEOC and DOJ initiative to prosecute companies accused of favoring immigrant labor. The settlement included both damages to disadvantaged applicants as well as a civil penalty. The EEOC and DOJ have been actively soliciting these reverse national origin discrimination claims. Affected employers should review their recruiting and hiring processes to make sure they are not imposing different terms and conditions of employment for U.S. and foreign-born workers.

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