Apple settles with US government for $25 million over unfair recruitment

Apple has reached a settlement of 25 million dollars, equivalent to 23 million euros, with the US Department of Justice. The company is accused of conducting a discriminatory recruitment campaign, attracting immigrants without a residence permit.

The Ministry of Justice writes on Thursday about the settlement it reached with Apple. According to the ministry, the company has discriminated by preferring immigrants without a residence permit over American citizens, foreigners with a temporary residence permit, permanent residents and status holders.

The government agency found that Apple violated the Immigration and Nationality Act when recruiting through a permanent labor certification program (PERM), which allows companies to offer permanent contracts to foreign workers. In recruiting workers for this program, the department says Apple did not advertise any vacancies on its website “even though the norm was to post other vacancies on this website.”

The agency also noted that Apple only accepted PERM applications by mail and “did not consider certain applications from current employees within Apple if submitted electronically.” “These hiring practices almost always resulted in few or no applications for PERM positions from applicants whose authorization to work does not expire,” the department said.

The Justice Department does not report which Apple jobs were affected by the hiring practices or whether Apple would have benefited from them. The majority of the settlement, $18.25 million, will go toward setting up a fund for those affected. The remaining $6.75 million will pay civil penalties.

Apple denies that it has committed discrimination, explains it to the AP news agency. “Apple employs more than 90,000 people in the United States and continues to invest nationwide, creating millions of jobs. When we realized that we had inadvertently failed to comply with the law, we agreed to a settlement to resolve the Department of Justice come.”