On February 25, a federal judge ruled that Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit alleging a preference for hiring foreign workers over American workers to pay them less. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco allowed three U.S. citizens accusing Meta of discrimination to proceed with a class action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, IT professional Purushothaman Rajaram, software engineer Ekta Bhatia, and data scientist Qun Wang, claimed their applications to Meta between 2020 and 2024 were rejected due to Meta's bias towards visa holders.
Meta denied the claims stating they were unfounded and pledged to vigorously defend against them. Despite Meta's attempt to have the case dismissed by arguing no intent to discriminate, the judge highlighted statistics showing a significant difference in the hiring of H-1B visa holders compared to overall employees.
Judge Beeler indicated Meta's prior settlement related to favoring temporary visa holders and acknowledged the plaintiffs' complaint of being overlooked in favor of H-1B visa holders.
The lawsuit, brought forth by the three U.S. citizens and their lawyer Daniel Low, aims to address the issue of bias towards visa workers prevalent in the tech industry.
The case, titled Rajaram et al v Meta Platforms Inc, is being heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, under number 22-02920.
(Note: The information in this text is a summary of legal proceedings regarding Meta Platforms Inc. and allegations of discriminatory hiring practices against U.S. citizens.)