OSC Obtains Its Largest Settlement Ever

IMMIGRANTS & EMPLOYMENT

IRCA Employment Verification and
Antidiscrimination Protections

OSC OBTAINS ITS LARGEST SETTLEMENT EVER
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 16, No. 7, November 22, 2002

The U.S. Dept. of Justice recently announced that the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) reached a landmark settlement with Swift & Company, a division of ConAgra, Inc., in which the company agreed to pay $174,088 in civil penalties and $13,412 in back pay to workers it had discriminated against. This settlement represents the largest ever won by the agency against an employer accused of unfair immigration-related hiring practices.

The OSC conducted a two-year investigation after a U.S. citizen complained to the agency that the defendant refused to hire her because it believed that she was undocumented. The OSC discovered that since 1990, one of Swift & Company's plants in Worthington, Minn., had been engaging in a pattern or practice of citizenship status discrimination and imposing unfair documentary requirements during the hiring process against U.S. citizens and lawful work-authorized immigrants. Citizens who were believed to look or sound "foreign" and work-authorized immigrants were subjected to greater scrutiny during the employment eligibility verification process than was applied to individuals who "appeared to be" U.S. citizens.

As part of the agreement, the defendant agreed to receive employment discrimination training for its human resource personnel, as well as offer interviews and positions to the affected workers. The settlement was approved by Judge Robert L. Barton Jr. of the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer.