McDonald's to Pay $355K in Legal Immigrant Discrimination Lawsuit

The suit was filed by the Justice Department.

The U.S. government is about to get a big fat check from McDonald's. The chain has just been ordered to pay $355,000 to settle a Justice Department lawsuit for discrimination against employees who are legal immigrants, reports the Washington Examiner.

According to the Justice Department's news release, McDonald's placed unfair — and illegal — burdens on non-U.S. citizen employees who were in the country legally: "The investigation found that McDonald’s had a longstanding practice of requiring lawful permanent residents to show a new permanent resident card when their original document expired, even though the law prohibits this practice. The investigation further found that the company did not make the equivalent request to its U.S. citizen employees who showed documents that later expired, and that those lawful permanent residents who were asked and could not provide a new card were not allowed to work, some even losing their jobs as a result."

In addition to the six-figure settlement it must pay out, McDonald's will also have to train its employees to follow immigration-related anti-discrimination laws, as well as undergo 20 months of monitoring to ensure the company is complying. McDonald's will also have to financially compensate employees who were unable to work or lost their jobs due to the aforementioned practices.

It's not the only trouble the McRib creator has had with Uncle Sam lately: McDonald's is currently scrapping with the National Labor Relations Board. Last year the NLRB ruled that the corporation can be held liable for the working conditions — including low wages — at any of its restaurants, even those owned by independent franchisees. If the NLRB's joint employer ruling is upheld, workers at franchises could be entitled to the same benefits as employees at company-owned restaurants, including paid sick days and higher wages.

McDonald's has fought back in federal court against the joint employer ruling, saying that it's merely a "victim of a union-orchestrated attack on its brand." The NLRB has also accused McDonald's of illegally retaliating against striking employees, and has subpoenaed the company for thousands of executive emails and documents.

McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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