Gap Inc. has settled a discrimination case with the Department of Justice. | Twitter photo
The Department of Justice announced a settlement with Gap Inc. for violating the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
“Thirty-five years ago, Congress passed a law prohibiting employers from discriminating against workers because of their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin, and from retaliating against them for asserting their rights,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a release posted on the DOJ website.
The settlement with Gap ends the litigation over whether the company discriminated against certain non-U.S. citizens (including lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees) and naturalized U.S. citizens because of their current or prior immigration status. The Justice Department said Gap discriminated against certain workers by re-verifying their permission to work, even though there was no legal reason to do so.
The agency also said Gap discriminated against some non-U.S. citizens by requesting they provide specific documents to confirm they still had permission to work.
According to the DOJ release, Gap must pay $73,263 in civil penalties, provide back wages to a lawful permanent resident, ensure its electronic human resource programs are compliant with applicable rules and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements.
The INA prohibits employers from unnecessarily reverifying a worker’s permission to work or specifying the types of documentation a worker is allowed to show to prove permission to work. According to the DOJ, the employer must allow the worker to present whichever acceptable documentation the worker chooses. The release says in the past five years, the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section has reached more than 100 settlements to resolve discrimination claims under the INA.
