The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement with a bakery with two stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. The settlement resolves allegations that the bakery violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by engaging in discriminatory documentary practices. Specifically, the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) found that the bakery improperly rejected a worker’s valid work authorization documents because of the worker’s citizenship status.
Under the settlement agreement, they will pay $26,000 in back pay and other compensation to an individual who was allegedly harmed by the discriminatory. The bakery also agreed to change its hiring policies and be subject to monitoring of its hiring practices for two years.
“Employers should not make assumptions about the validity of their workers’ employment documents based on sterotypes or unfounded assumptions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta for the Civil Rights Division. “The department encourages employers to use the Civil Rights Division’s resources, including OSC’s hotline, if they have questions about accepting Form I-9 documentation in a non-discriminatory manner.”
