Feds Resolve Citizenship Status Discrimination Claim

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with Canvas Corporation, a vending company based in Woodbury, N.Y., that contracts with various concessionaires at stadiums around the United States , to settle allegations that Canvas Corporation engaged in a pattern or practice of citizenship status discrimination by preferring to hire only U.S. citizens.  

 The case originated when a lawful permanent resident responded to a Canvas Corporation job advertisement seeking U.S. citizen applicants for vendor positions.   According to the department’s findings, Canvas Corporation rejected the resident because she is not a U.S. citizen.   Under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a person or entity may not discriminate against certain protected individuals in the hiring process based on their citizenship status unless required by law, regulation, executive order, or government contract.   The department’s investigation revealed that Canvas Corporation posted several job advertisements requiring U.S. citizenship and had a pattern or practice of rejecting non-U.S. citizen applicants, even though U.S. citizenship was not legally required.

             Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Canvas Corporation has agreed to pay $10,397 in back pay to the charging party, and $13,400 in civil penalties.   Canvas Corporation has also agreed to receive training on the INA’s anti-discrimination provision and to maintain and submit designated employment records to the United States for the two-year term of the agreement.

“Federal law protects people who are authorized to work in the United States from facing discriminatory barriers when they are seeking employment,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The department is committed to protecting the right to work through the enforcement of the anti-discrimination provision of the INA and to educating the public about their rights and responsibilities.”

The Civil Rights Division’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) is responsible for enforcing the INA anti-discrimination provision, which prohibits employers from discriminating against work-authorized individuals on the basis of citizenship status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or referral for a fee.