The Justice Department announced today that it secured an agreement with Pennsylvania-based HCSG East LLC and its parent company, Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG), a nationwide provider of housekeeping, laundry and food services for healthcare and nursing facilities. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that HCSG discriminated against non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States when hiring at its Siler City, North Carolina, location, and engaged in unfair practices concerning work authorization documents because of a worker’s status as a non-U.S. citizen.
“Employers cannot erect unlawful discriminatory barriers to work that exclude entire categories of workers with permission to work in the United States, based on citizenship status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to hold employers accountable when they violate our nation’s federal civil rights laws.”
After conducting an investigation based on a worker’s complaint, the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) concluded that HCSG discriminated against a worker by refusing to honor her valid document showing her permission to work because of her citizenship status. IER’s investigation also determined that HCSG had a policy of unlawfully refusing to hire certain workers who had permission to work but were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents — such as persons granted asylum or refugee status by the federal government — at its Siler City location from at least February 2022 to at least December 2022.
Under the settlement, HCSG will pay a civil penalty to the United States, and provide backpay to an affected worker. The agreement also requires HCSG to train its personnel on the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)’s requirements, revise its employment policies, broadly recruit workers, avoid unnecessary English-language requirements in its job ads and be subject to departmental monitoring. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from asking for specific or unnecessary documents because of a worker’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin when checking permission to work.
IER is responsible for enforcing the INA’s anti-discrimination provision. This law prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; and retaliation and intimidation.
Find more information on how employers can avoid discrimination in recruitment, hiring and employment eligibility verification on IER’s website. Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify), or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); email IER@usdoj.gov; sign up for a live webinar; watch an on-demand presentation; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Sign up for email updates from IER.
