A New Jersey-based IT recruitment company has been slapped with a fine of USD 25,500 for allegedly posting discriminatory job advertisements and seeking job applications only from India.

“When employers advertise jobs only to applicants from a certain country or who need temporary visas, they discourage all other eligible workers and deny them a fair chance to be considered,” Assistant Attorney General, Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.

The Justice Department said it has secured a settlement agreement with Infosoft Solutions Inc, the IT recruiting and contracting company operating as KForce Tech LLC.

The settlement resolves the department’s determination that Infosoft violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by posting six discriminatory job advertisements that solicited applications only from non-US citizens who needed visa sponsorship and, in one case, also sought applicants only from India.

“The Civil Rights Division will not tolerate national origin or citizenship status discrimination, and is committed to knocking down these unlawful discriminatory barriers,” Clarke said.

Under the settlement, Infosoft will pay USD 25,500 in civil penalties to the United States. The agreement also requires the company to train its recruiters on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements.

During the investigation, the department determined that between July 2021 and August 2021, Infosoft posted at least six job advertisements inviting applications only from applicants who wanted sponsorship to work in the United States or who already had an employment-based temporary visa.

One of the six advertisements also required the candidates to be from India. In doing so, the company deterred workers with permission to work in the United States without sponsorship (such as asylees, refugees, lawful permanent residents, US nationals and citizens) from applying to the job advertisements and being fairly considered for the employment opportunities.

The INA’s anti-discrimination provision generally prohibits employers from recruiting or refusing to hire workers based on their citizenship status or national origin, the department of justice added.

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