The Department of Justice fined a Virginia company $7,500 for a discriminatory job offering. The company will have to pay the fine.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) says that in March 2023, Arthur Grand Technologies Inc., a company in Ashburn, Virginia that provides IT services, put up a job posting for a business analyst.
The job offer was on a public website for hiring people. It said, “Only US Born Citizens [white] who live within 60 miles of Dallas, TX.”
The post led the DOJ and the Labor Department to start looking into it. It was started by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in April 2023. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) did the same in May 2023.
In an email to CNN, Arthur Grand Technologies CEO Sheik Rahmathullah said, “Arthur Grand Technologies vehemently denies any guilt or wrongdoing about the discriminatory job posting that appeared in March 2023.”
“A frustrated worker put this unapproved message on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) from their own email address and account.” When we found out about this, we took swift and firm action to make sure that something similar would never happen again. This included firing the employee who was guilty right away.
The Justice Department announced different deals with the DOJ and the Labor Department on Thursday.
The deal between the DOJ and the company ends the agency’s investigation into whether Arthur Grand broke the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by posting an unfair job ad.
Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Kristin Clarke said in a news release, “It is shameful that in the 21st century, we continue to see employers using ‘Whites only’ and ‘only US-born’ job postings to lock out otherwise qualified job candidates of color.”
Clarke also said, “The Justice Department and other government agencies will continue to hold employers responsible when they break our country’s federal civil rights laws.”
A news release from the DOJ says that Arthur Grand will also have to “train its personnel on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies, and be subject to departmental monitoring.”
The acting head of the Department of Labor’s Office of government Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Michele Hodge, said, “Companies like Arthur Grand that take federal contracts cannot have a hiring process that is ‘Whites only.'”
Arthur Grand’s CEO, Sheik Rahmathullah, signed a conciliation agreement with the Labor Department. As part of it, the company will also pay people who made complaints with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) money.
“Arthur Grand Technologies is proud to be a minority-owned company,” Rahmathullah said. “These agreements should not be seen as an admission of guilt or wrongdoing by Arthur Grand Technologies.” He also said, “We deeply regret any harm this incident caused and are committed to making meaningful changes to maintain the trust and confidence of our community and stakeholders.”
