Dive Brief:
- Seward and Son Planting Co., a farming operation in Louise, Mississippi, agreed to pay $150,000 to settle allegations it discriminated against Black American workers because of their race and national origin by favoring non-Black foreign workers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Nov. 25.
- Per the complaint in EEOC v. Seward and Son Planting Co., Seward and Son allegedly hired non-Black foreign agricultural workers under the H-2A visa program to supplement its workforce, which consisted primarily of Black farm employees of American national origin. The company intentionally assigned the non-Black foreign workers more favorable, less physically strenuous jobs that paid higher bonuses, the lawsuit alleged.
- EEOC sued Seward and Son for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under a three-year consent decree, in addition to the $150,000, the company must provide training on employment discrimination to all owners, managers and employees and require all supervisory and HR employees to immediately report discrimination or retaliation issues to management or HR staff designated to handle the reports.
Dive Insight:
In a media release announcing the settlement, EEOC District Director Bradley Anderson stressed that, “Federal law prohibits employers from favoring employees in compensation or preferred work assignments based on their race or national origin.”
Seward and Son did not admit to liability, and the consent decree made no findings of fact or conclusions of law, the court document said. The $150,000 includes back pay and compensatory and punitive damages for the aggrieved individuals, according to the consent decree.
EEOC announced the settlement shortly after it released a guidance laying out how anti-American bias — a form of national origin discrimination — can violate Title VII. For instance, national origin discrimination can involve job postings stating “H-1B preferred” or “H-1B only,” referring to the employment visa program for skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations.
National origin discrimination can also include “terminating American workers who are on the ‘bench’ between job assignments” and paid at a much higher rate than visa guest workers, the guidance says.
Since early 2025, employers have been “on notice.” EEOC intends to root out businesses that “abus[e] our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers,” EEOC Chair — then-Acting-Chair — Andrea Lucas emphasized in a Feb. 19 statement.
As a prelude to that warning, EEOC announced Feb. 18 that a major hotel and resort in Guam agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle allegations it provided non-Japanese employees, including workers of American national origin, with less favorable wages, benefits and terms of employment than workers from Japan in similar or subordinate positions.
EEOC’s enforcement efforts, consistent with the Trump Administration’s prioritization of American citizens in the workplace, “will shift employer incentives, decreasing demand for illegal alien workers and decreasing abuse of the United States’ legal immigration system,” Lucas stated in February.
