{"id":229196,"date":"2021-03-07T08:37:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T08:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=229196"},"modified":"2021-03-09T07:11:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T07:11:40","slug":"exclusive-u-s-agency-probes-facebook-for-systemic-racial-bias-in-hiring-promotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=229196","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: U.S. agency probes Facebook for ‘systemic’ racial bias in hiring, promotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paresh Dave \u2013 Reuters March 6, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A U.S. agency investigating Facebook Inc for racial bias in hiring and promotions has designated the probe as \u201csystemic,\u201d attorneys for three job applicants and a manager who claim the company discriminated against them told Reuters on Friday.<\/p>\n

A \u201csystemic\u201d probe means the agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, suspects company policies may be contributing to widespread discrimination.<\/p>\n

The EEOC typically resolves disputes through mediation or allowing complainants to sue employers. But agency officials designate a few cases \u201csystemic,\u201d enabling investigators to rope in specialists to analyze company data and potentially bring a broader lawsuit representing entire classes of workers.<\/p>\n

Facebook operations program manager Oscar Veneszee Jr. and two applicants denied jobs brought a charge last July to the EEOC, and a third rejected applicant joined the case in December. They have alleged Facebook discriminates against Black candidates and employees by relying on subjective evaluations and promoting problematic racial stereotypes.<\/p>\n

The designation of the EEOC\u2019s probe has not been previously reported.<\/p>\n

The EEOC has not brought allegations against Facebook. Its investigation, which may last months more, may not result in findings of wrongdoing. The agency declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone declined to comment on the status of the probe or specific allegations but said that \u201cit is essential to provide all employees with a respectful and safe working environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take any allegations of discrimination seriously and investigate every case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The EEOC brought in systemic investigators by last August and received detailed briefing papers from both sides over the last four months, said Peter Romer-Friedman, an attorney at Gupta Wessler representing Veneszee and the job candidates.<\/p>\n

Employment law firms Mehri & Skalet and Katz Marshall & Banks also are helping the workers.<\/p>\n

The EEOC\u2019s Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Washington offices are involved, attorneys from the firms said.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s counsel, Covington & Burling, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Increasing racial and gender diversity has been a persistent challenge for the nation\u2019s largest tech companies, which at times have blamed a shortage of qualified candidates from underrepresented groups. But tech workers have grown emboldened to publicly challenge that notion and allege in formal complaints that biased employment practices cause disparities.<\/p>\n

Romer-Friedman said he and his colleagues told the EEOC in a submission last month that one such Facebook policy is awarding employees bonuses of up to $5,000 when a candidate they refer is hired. Referred candidates tend to reflect the makeup of existing employees, disadvantaging Black professionals, he said.<\/p>\n

Facebook said about 3.9% of its U.S. employees as of last June were Black.<\/p>\n

David Lopez, a former EEOC general counsel now teaching at Rutgers University, said that systemic investigations are significant because of the additional resources involved. When they result in allegations of wrongdoing, multimillion-dollar settlements sometimes follow, he said, citing recent cases against Dollar General Corp and Walmart Inc.<\/p>\n

In the year ended last Sept. 30, 13 of the 93 EEOC merit lawsuits were systemic, according to agency data.<\/p>\n

Last December, the Justice Department accused Facebook of discriminating against U.S. workers broadly, saying it gave hiring preference to temporary workers such as H-1B visa holders.<\/p>\n

Alphabet Inc\u2019s Google last month agreed to spend $3.8 million to settle U.S. government allegations that it underpaid women and unfairly passed over women and Asians for job openings.<\/p>\n

Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was thought to be a paragon of equal opportunity, Facebook has been accused of \u201csystemic\u201d racism in hiring <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Race"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229196"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229226,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229196\/revisions\/229226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}