Background: The Department of Justice headquarters is seen on February 23, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)/Inset: LinkedIn photo of Arthur Grand Technologies CEO Sheik Rahmathullah.
A technology services company based in Virginia that posted a job advertisement restricting its candidates to “only US Born Citizens [white]” has settled with the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Justice Department.
According to the agreement struck with Arthur Grand Technologies Inc. unveiled last week, the IT services firm does not admit to nor deny any violation though the Justice Department says the company’s ad violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, which bars discrimination against prospective employees based on their race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity or national origin.
Arthur Grand Technologies CEO Sheik Rahmathullah told NPR over Memorial Day that it denies any wrongdoing and said the job posting was put up by a “rogue employee.”
Per the terms of their final settlement agreement, Arthur Grand Technologies asserts the post was “generated by a disgruntled recruiter in India and was intended to embarrass the company.”
As part of the deal, the firm has set up a program to compensate 31 people who were allegedly discriminated against with $31,000 each. The firm must also pay a fine of $7,500.
The job posting that went up in April 2023 was intended to fill a Salesforce analyst and insurance claims position in Dallas serving companies headquartered in Michigan and Nebraska: HTC Global and Berkshire Hathaway respectively.
In its entirety, the listing stated: “Only Born US Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates].”
The job post promptly launched a furor online.
According to the Justice Department, the agreement also requires Arthur Grand to “train its personnel on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring.”
In a separate agreement with the Labor Department, the company must also open itself up to scrutiny with written reports, premises inspections and access to relevant documents. The agreement also bans retaliation against anyone who filed a complaint or provided assistance to investigators.
In that same vein, anyone who raised a complaint against Arthur Grand for discrimination and now wishes to join the settlement must declare that the company in no way treated them “unlawfully or unfairly” and by accepting a payout, they agree that no further lawsuits can be filed against the firm.
A spokesperson for Arthur Grand did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Kristin Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, called the ad “shameful.”
In its report, the Labor Department said it found violations by Arthur Grand including missing equal opportunity rights notices and records that tracked their candidates’ gender, race and ethnicity.
Michele Hodge, the acting director for the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs insisted the department was intent on holding federal contractors accountable for “discriminatory practices like this advertisement.”
“Companies like Arthur Grand, that accept federal contracts, cannot have a ‘whites only’ hiring process,” Hodge said.
Arthur Grand is minority owned.
Rahmathullah stressed to NPR that when the job listing first went out and the company realized what happened, they took “immediate and decisive action to ensure that this type of incident will never happen again.”
The employee responsible for the ad, he said, was terminated that same day. The company also apologized and vowed to make “meaningful changes” to maintain trust in its company.
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