DOJ Settles With Utah Staffing Company Over I-9 Hiring Practices

DOJ, Dec. 13, 2016 - "The Justice Department reached an agreement today resolving claims that 1st Class Staffing LLC, a staffing company based in Orem, Utah, discriminated against work-authorized non-U.S. citizens in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The department’s investigation conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), found that 1st Class Staffing’s Fontana, California, office routinely requested that non-U.S. citizens, but not U.S. citizens, provide specific immigration documents to establish their authority to work. Under the INA, all workers, including non-U.S. citizens, must be allowed to choose whichever valid documentation they would like to present from the lists of acceptable documents to prove their work authorization. It is unlawful for an employer to limit an employee’s choice of documentation because of their citizenship, immigration status or national origin.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, 1st Class must pay for lost wages to the charging party whose complaint initiated the department’s investigation; pay $17,600 in civil penalties to the United States; participate in department-provided training on the anti-discrimination provision of the INA and be subject to departmental monitoring."