A Louisiana company that passed over American workers in order to hire foreign nationals through a work visa program will be required to compensate the U.S. applicants it discriminated against, according to a settlement agreement with the Justice Department.
The Barrios Street Realty Inc., a Lockport, Louisiana company, is also now barred from participating in the temporary work visa program that it used to solicit foreign workers.
According to the Justice Department, the company and its agent Jorge Arturo Guerrero Rodriguez “engaged in a pattern or practice of citizenship status discrimination in hiring against U.S. citizens.”
In 2014, the company either failed to consider or improperly rejected 73 U.S. workers who applied for positions as sheet-metal roofers or laborers. The company later claimed in applications for foreign workers that it had been unable to attract and hire qualified U.S. citizens to fill the positions.
This was due to the company’s “hiring preference for temporary foreign workers under the H-2B visa program.” The H-2B visa program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs.
“Federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against U.S. workers in hiring,” said Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department is committed to identifying and combating discriminatory hiring preferences that impede the ability of U.S. workers to compete equally for employment.”
The company will now be required to create a back pay fund of $115,000 that will be used to compensate U.S. workers who were discriminated against when their applications to the company were unfairly rejected.
The company will also pay $30,000 in civil penalties and will be subject to monitoring by the DOJ’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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