A Loveland company allegedly discriminated against U.S. citizens, subjecting them to pre-employment drug testing and criminal background checks that temporary seasonal agricultural workers were not required to pass, a U.S. Justice Department settlement says.
Crop Production Services Inc. has agreed to pay $10,500 in civil penalties to the U.S. government and an additional $18,739 to U.S. citizens who were allegedly discriminated against in 2016, according to a news release by the U.S. Justice Department.
“There will be zero tolerance for companies that violate the Immigration and Nationality Act by hiring foreign visa holders over U.S. workers,” said John Gore, acting assistant attorney general in the department’s civil rights division.
CPS denied the discrimination allegations, and only agreed to a settlement because it “is a smaller amount,” Todd Coakwell, director of investor relations of CPS’ Calgary, Canada-based parent company Agrium, said Tuesday.
“CPS is a proud employer of 10,000 American workers,” Coakwell said.
The justice department sued CPS in September the company hired people with foreign visas in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The company refused to hire at least three U.S. citizens as seasonal technicians at its El Campo, Texas, facility by imposing more burdensome requirements on them than on workers hired under the federal H-2A visa program.
U.S. citizens had to complete a criminal background check and a drug test, but foreign job applicants didn’t have to do either, the lawsuit said.
PSI filled all 15 job openings with foreign workers, it said.
The immigration act makes it illegal for companies to discriminate against U.S. workers because of citizenship, and the H-2A visa program says employers can only hire foreign visa workers if there are insufficient qualified U.S. workers, the lawsuit says.
But in February of 2016, CPS requested and received federal approval not to hire any of the U.S. applicants because they did not have the experience or skills that were needed for the positions they sought, Coakwell said.
The justice department will provide training to CPS employers and undergo monitoring, according to the settlement.
The action was part of the civil rights division’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, which fights discrimination against qualified U.S. workers.
