Justice Department Settles with Moving and Storage Company to Resolve Immigration-Related Discrimination Claims

The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Spike Inc., a moving and storage company doing business as Olympia Moving and Storage.

The settlement resolves the department’s claims that Spike violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by failing to consider four U.S. workers for employment opportunities that it instead filled with H-2B visa workers at two of its locations in the Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC metropolitan areas.  

“Employers should hire workers based on their qualifications, not their citizenship or immigration status,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to protecting workers from this type of discrimination.”

The department’s investigation determined that from at least Feb. 1, 2019, to March 11, 2019, Spike discriminated against four U.S. workers by failing to consider them for temporary mover positions. Despite receiving applications from these available workers, Spike filled the positions with H-2B visa workers, claiming that it could not find qualified and available U.S. workers. The INA prohibits employers from refusing to recruit or hire U.S. workers – i.e., U.S. citizens and nationals, asylees, refugees, and recent lawful permanent residents – because of their citizenship or immigration status.    

Under the settlement, Spike will pay $12,000 in civil penalties to the United States, pay up to an amount of $70,000 in back pay to the affected U.S. workers, and conduct enhanced U.S. worker recruitment and advertising for future positions. The settlement also requires Spike to train employees on the requirements of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision and be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. 

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The statute prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; and retaliation and intimidation. 

Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. More information on how employers can avoid citizenship status discrimination is available here. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment, or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify); or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); email [email protected]; sign up for a free webinar; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER.