A Northern Virginia-based technology company reached an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Labor (DOL) to pay fines over a discriminatory job posting, according to official statements.
Arthur Grand Technologies, Inc. (AGT) in Ashburn, Virginia, released a job listing “that restricted eligible candidates to ‘only US Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates].’ (brackets in original),” the two agencies announced Thursday, May 23.
The company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) with the March 2023 job posting, according to the DOJ. The DOL determined that the company also “violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.”
AGT agreed with the DOJ to pay a civil penalty of $7,500 to the U.S. Treasury, according to the agreement document from the DOJ. The separate agreement document from the DOL indicated that AGT would also pay $31,000 to the complainants. Both federal agencies ordered the AGT to declare and abide by an equal opportunity policy in every one of its job advertisements, according to the documents. They also ordered AGT to avoid intimidating or threatening participants in and beneficiaries of the investigation, among other agreed-upon demands. (RELATED: Food Manufacturer Pays $140,000 Penalty After Investigation Finds Company Hired Teens Illegally)
The two federal agencies began investigating AGT after one of the company’s recruiters in India shared the advertisement via the job website Indeed, according to the DOJ’s statement. AGT asserted that the recruiter was “disgruntled” and that the advertisement “was intended to embarrass the company,” according to the DOJ’s agreement document. AGT denied authorizing the posting and neither admitted nor denied violating an executive order, according to both agreements.
The job posting was widely shared on social media and in news bulletins, according to the DOJ.
[don’t share with candidates] pic.twitter.com/lij7iCjnGH
— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) April 5, 2023
The advertised position was intended to serve two of AGT’s clients — Michigan-based HTC Global and Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, the DOJ said.
AGT has subsidiaries in Canada and India, according to its website.
DOJ Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the job posting was “shameful” and that she “share[d] the public’s outrage at Arthur Grand’s appalling and discriminatory ban on job candidates based on citizenship status, national origin, color and race.”
The DOJ will “continue to hold employers accountable,” she added.
