The Justice Department announced that it secured an agreement with Pennsylvania-based HCSG East LLC and its parent company, Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG), a nationwide provider of housekeeping, laundry and food services for healthcare and nursing facilities. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that HCSG discriminated against non-US citizens with permission to work in the United States when hiring at its Siler City, North Carolina, location, and engaged in unfair practices concerning work authorization documents because of a worker’s status as a non-US citizen. After conducting an investigation based on a worker’s complaint, the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) concluded that HCSG discriminated against a worker by refusing to honor her valid document showing her permission to work because of her citizenship status. IER’s investigation also determined that HCSG had a policy of unlawfully refusing to hire certain workers who had permission to work but were not US citizens or lawful permanent residents — such as persons granted asylum or refugee status by the federal government — at its Siler City location from at least February 2022 to at least December 2022.
Under the settlement, HCSG will pay a civil penalty to the United States, and provide backpay to an affected worker. The agreement also requires HCSG to train its personnel on the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)’s requirements, revise its employment policies, broadly recruit workers, avoid unnecessary English-language requirements in its job ads and be subject to departmental monitoring. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from asking for specific or unnecessary documents because of a worker’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin when checking permission to work.
