FB FAVOURING FOREIGNERS FOR HIGH-PAYING JOBS, ALLEGES U.S. GOVT SUIT

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is accusing Facebook in a lawsuit of discriminating against US workers in favour of foreigners with special visas to fill more than 2,600 high-paying jobs.

The justice department announced the suit on Thursday, alleging that the social media giant refused to recruit, consider or hire qualified and available US workers for the positions that Facebook reserved for temporary visa holders. Facebook sponsored the visa holders for “green cards” authorising them to work permanently.

The H-1B visas are a staple of Silicon Valley, widely used by software programmers and other employees of major US technology companies.

The lawsuit followed a twoyear investigation by the justice department’s Civil Rights Division. “Facebook intentionally created a hiring system in which it denied qualified US workers a fair opportunity to learn about and apply for jobs” that it instead sought to channel to temporary visa holders, the department said in a news release.

The positions at issue offered an average salary of around $156,000. The department is seeking unspecified civil penalties and back pay on behalf of US workers deemed to have been denied employment.

“Facebook has been cooperating with the DOJ in its review of this issue and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation,” the company, which is based in Menlo Park, California, said in a statement.

President Donald Trump has long advocated restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration, and has raised concerns for years about foreigners competing with American citizens for jobs.

In June, his administration extended a ban on green cards issued outside the US until the end of the year.