In March 2023, a tech company in Virginia went viral for publishing a job posting that stated it was only looking for White candidates.
Over the past 18 months, they have faced several civil lawsuits from candidates and an extensive investigation by the Department of Justice. The company has finally agreed to settle and pay the fines imposed by the DOJ, but many say it’s not nearly enough for the egregious and racist posting.
The Post That Started It All
Tech firm Arthur Grand Technologies posted on the popular job site and hiring platform Indeed in March of last year that they were looking for a Business Analyst [Salesforce & Insurance Claims] in Dallas, Texas.
The post included a “note” that read, “Only born US Citizens [White] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates].”
Whoever Wrote the Posting Made a Big Mistake
Clearly, the “note” was not supposed to be included in the public posting on Indeed. Instead, it was an instruction from the executives to the hiring manager to ensure they only hired a White, American-born applicant.
Whoever wrote the post made a mistake that likely cost them their job, but the damage was done. The post clearly showed that the company was practicing discriminatory and illegal hiring, and the DOJ immediately began an investigation.
What Is Arthur Grand Technologies?
According to its website, “Arthur Grand (AG) is an IT services firm specializing in Digital Transformation initiatives for Federal, Commercial, State & local customers.”
The company also boasts that its “culture of excellent delivery, combined with a commitment to bringing the best talent to provide services, has earned our company an unparalleled reputation for delivering transformative results.”
The DOJ Investigation
While any company that published such a clearly discriminatory job posting would certainly have been investigated, the DOJ was even more inclined to perform an in-depth audit of Arthur Grand’s practices because the company works on several federal contracts.
As Michele Hodge, the Acting Director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), explained, “Companies like Arthur Grand, that accept federal contracts, cannot have a ‘whites only’ hiring process.”
What Laws Did Arthur Grand Break?
Throughout the inquiry, the DOJ found that, with this post and other internal discriminatory practices, Arthur Grand Technologies had broken several federal laws.
First, the tech company violated Executive Order 11246, which “requires affirmative action and prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”
Violating the Immigration and Nationality Act
Additionally, Arthur Grand had violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, which “prohibits employers (when hiring, discharging, or recruiting or referring for a fee) from discriminating because of national origin against U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and authorized aliens or discriminating because of citizenship status.”
Violating two US laws was enough to ensure Arthur Grand would have to pay for its mistake. However, even more than the legality of the issue, Americans were simply appalled by the fact that a federally contracted company was using discriminatory hiring practices.
Arthur Grand: Absolutely “Shameful”
Kristen Clarke, the Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement, “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 eligible job candidates of color.”
She continued, “I share the public’s outrage at Arthur Grand’s appalling and discriminatory ban on job candidates based on citizenship status, national origin, color, and race.”
Arthur Grand Maintains They’ve Done Nothing Wrong
Throughout this mess, Arthur Grand has maintained that the company did nothing wrong. The company “vehemently denies any guilt or wrongdoing in relation to the discriminatory job posting that appeared in March 2023.”
Company CEO Sheik Rahmathullah continued, “Upon discovering this, we took immediate and decisive action to ensure that this type of incident will never happen again, including the immediate termination of the responsible employee.”
Americans Who Saw the Posting Filed Civil Lawsuits Against Arthur Grand
While the DOJ was conducting its investigation, 31 people who saw the posting decided to file a civil lawsuit against Arthur Grand, stating they were personally targeted and excluded from applying because of the “Whites only” note.
The firm has since agreed to settle with the plaintiffs. However, as part of the settlement, they each had to sign a document stating, “I understand that AGT denies that it treated me unlawfully or unfairly in any way.”
Arthur Grand Only Has to Pay $40,000 in Fines
The settlement only included a $31,000 payout to the 31 plaintiffs affected by the discriminatory job posting.
As well, the DOJ only charged Arthur Grand with only $7,500 for violating the Executive Order and Immigration and Nationality Act, making the total payout a mere $40,000. However, the company is far from out of the woods.
The DOJ Noticed Several Other Issues in Their Investigation
In addition to the post, the DOJ also found several other examples of labor requirement violations during its investigation, including failure to document applicants’ demographic traits and failure to display equal opportunity rights in the workplace.
The Department of Labor will continue to monitor Arthur Grand Technologies and its hiring practices to ensure that this does not happen again. As Michele Hodge said, “We are committed to holding federal contractors accountable for outrageous discriminatory practices.”
