McDonald’s has agreed to pay a fine of $355,000 and subject operations to monitoring by the U.S. Department of Justice for 20 months to settle a complaint that it discriminated against some employees by demanding to see their green cards.
The franchisor will also have to compensate employees who lost their jobs because of the demand and submit to training on the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Justice accused McDonald’s of maintaining “a longstanding practice” of demanding to see the green cards of legal immigrants after their proof of legal status had expired, an expressly forbidden practice. If they could not present the green card, they were fired, Justice said.
It added that U.S. citizens were not subjected to the same requirement if their proof-of-citizenship documents had expired.
Justice noted that the settlement involves only the franchisor, not any of its franchisees.
It also mentioned that the complaint first came to the department’s attention through an employee hotline the government body maintains.
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