Cloudera has agreed to a two-year pause in permanent labour-certification applications and a $2 million financial resolution of US allegations that its recruitment process excluded qualified domestic workers.
The Justice and Labor departments announced the coordinated settlement on October 16. It combines $600,000 in civil penalties with a $1.4 million back-pay fund and requirements governing how the data-management company advertises and processes applications.
The dispute concerns PERM, the process employers use to establish that qualified, willing and available US workers cannot be found before sponsoring certain foreign employees for permanent residence.
Federal investigators said Cloudera treated recruitment for those positions differently from ordinary vacancies. According to the agreement, the jobs were absent from its public careers website and applicants were directed to an email account that could not receive messages from outside the company.
Cloudera denies the discrimination allegations and says it acted without discriminatory intent. The agreement records its position that, once notified of the email problem, it withdrew applications, halted PERM processing and took corrective action.
The document carries signatures dated earlier in October. The new development is the agencies’ public announcement, not a ruling after trial.
The 24-month bar runs from the most recent withdrawal of a PERM application. Revised procedures must put covered vacancies alongside ordinary postings, accept applications through the same websites and provide comparable consideration.
The agreement also provides for an independent auditor, staff training and reporting. Potential back-pay recipients must contact the Justice Department within the agreement’s 180-day contact period and establish eligibility; the fund is not an automatic payment to every unsuccessful applicant.
The parties are to seek dismissal of the administrative case with prejudice. The recruitment and monitoring obligations continue under the settlement’s three-year term.
