Overview
- The Justice Department Civil Rights Division and the EEOC announced a $5 million settlement with Maplebear Inc. on Tuesday that resolves claims the company discriminated against U.S. applicants in PERM recruitment.
- Federal investigators found that Instacart required U.S. applicants for PERM-listed roles to mail paper applications while the company generally accepted electronic applications, a practice the agencies say disadvantaged and delayed consideration of U.S. candidates between December 2023 and February 2026.
- Under the agreement Instacart must create up to a $4 million claims fund for affected and deterred applicants and pay a $1 million civil penalty, with a claims administrator contacting potential claimants to determine eligibility for back pay and damages.
- The settlement also requires operational fixes: public posting of PERM jobs, acceptance of electronic applications, annual training, revised policies, and monitoring and reporting to prevent future citizenship-status or national-origin discrimination, while Instacart says it agreed only to focus on its business and denies violating the law.
- The action is the Civil Rights Division’s 15th PERM-related resolution under current leadership and builds on broader federal initiatives to enforce rules that bar employers from favoring temporary visa holders over qualified U.S. workers.