Palantir said it “firmly” denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
Prominent Silicon Valley data company Palantir Technologies is heading towards a legal battle with the US Department of Labor which has filed an administrative lawsuit against it on Monday, alleging that the company systematically discriminated against Asian job applicants.
The law suit also seeks compensation including repayment of lost wages for Asian job applicants.
Palantir, which is one of the most secretively operated companies in the Silicon Valley has raised $880 million in funding late last year, for a $20 billion valuation. The company has a history of giving assistance to government agencies to track down terrorists and uncover financial fraud.
Palantir has “firmly” denied all the allegations levelled against it in the lawsuit.
“We intend to vigorously defend against these allegations, “the Silicon Valley company said in an emailed statement.
The lawsuit stems from a compliance review by the OFCCP that found that starting in January 2010, Palantir’s hiring practices routinely discriminated against Asian applicants for software engineering jobs. Asian applicants were routinely eliminated in the resume screening and telephone interview phases of hiring despite being as qualified as white applicants, the Labor Department alleges.
In one example cited by the lawsuit, Palantir reviewed more than 130 qualified applicants for an engineering intern position, 73% of whom were Asian. The company hired 17 non-Asian applicants and four Asians.
As a federal government contractor that provides software and data analysis to the FBI, the US Special Operations Command and the Army, it is barred from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or against military veterans.
“Federal contractors have an obligation to ensure that their hiring practices and policies are free of all forms of discrimination,” Patricia Shiu, director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), said in a statement.
“Our nation’s taxpayers deserve to know that companies employed with public funds are providing equal opportunity for job seekers.”
The Labor Department said it filed the administrative lawsuit after being unable to resolve the case with Palantir.
Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, two of Silicon Valley’s more influential investors and entrepreneurs.
1 Comment
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