Meta has been dragged to the courtroom by Americans on claims that the Facebook and Instagram parent company discriminates against foreign people in its hiring. At the same time, a U.S. federal judge has ruled that the class action lawsuit could proceed. This means that three U.S. citizens can bring their case against the tech giant forward.
This is by filing a suit that says that Meta is a systematic preference for the employment of H-1B visa holders, often paying a lesser wage as compared to their American counterparts.
The three plaintiffs—IT employee Purushothaman Rajaram, software engineer Ekta Bhatia, and data scientist Qun Wang—reportedly applied for several positions at Meta between 2020 and 2024. However, despite being qualified, they were denied. Case Rajaram et al. vs. Meta Platforms Inc. will now be proceeding in the Northern District of California District.
The ruling by the court emerges at a time when there has been increasing scrutiny on the hiring practices adopted by technology companies for having most of them rely on foreign workers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler pointed out that 15 percent of Meta's U.S. workforce is made up of holders of H-1B student visas, while only 0.5 percent of the total American workforce holds such visas. The judge also recalled a similar agreement where Meta was to pay up to $14.25 million in 2021 to settle similar allegations of ignoring American workers in favor of those on work visas.
Meta has strongly denied these allegations and argued that there is no evidence of discrimination or that the plaintiffs would have been hired had they been from another country. The company asserts that all hiring is based on meritocracy and business needs, not nationality or visa status.
The matter could have a wide-ranging implication for the tech industry. This means that H-1B visa holders will find the laws favorable if the lawsuit succeeds. This will most likely lead Meta and other companies to reconsider their ways of recruitment and specific hiring policies.
According to legal pundits, the case can be termed a potential precedent concerning how American corporations handle possible job applications from their citizens and foreign nationals. As the lawsuit goes on, fair hiring practices in the tech sector will continue to be very politically contentious issues.