Meta sued for alleged hiring bias in favor of foreign workers on H-1B visas
Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit alleging that it prefers hiring foreign workers over American candidates to reduce labor costs. The lawsuit, filed by three US citizens, claims the Facebook and Instagram parent company systematically favored visa holders.
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US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, based in San Francisco, allowed the proposed class-action lawsuit to proceed. The plaintiffs—information technology worker Purushothaman Rajaram, software engineer Ekta Bhatia, and data scientist Qun Wang—allege that they were denied jobs at Meta despite being qualified. They claim the company’s hiring practices between 2020 and 2024 prioritized foreign workers holding H-1B visas.
Meta denied the allegations, calling them «baseless» and stating that it would «vigorously defend» itself. The company argued that there was no proof of intentional discrimination or that the plaintiffs would have been hired if they were not US citizens.
Judge Beeler cited data showing that 15% of Meta’s US workforce holds H-1B visas, significantly higher than the 0.5% rate in the overall workforce. She also referenced Meta’s 2021 settlement, where the company agreed to pay up to $14.25 million, including a civil fine, to resolve federal claims that it had excluded American workers from certain job openings.
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