The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has settled multiple charges of national origin discrimination with a job search website operator, the EEOC announced March 20. The charges alleged that DHI Group posted job advertisements that excluded or discouraged individuals of American national origin from applying.
As part of the settlement, DHI Group will rewrite its computer programs by using artificial intelligence (AI) to scrape for potentially discriminatory keywords such as “H-1B” or “visa” or “OPT” that appear near the words “only” or “must” in its customers’ new job postings. (“OPT” refers to Optional Practical Training, which is temporary employment directly related to the academic major of a foreign student with an F-1 visa.) DHI also has agreed to revise the guidance on its website to instruct its customers to avoid using language in job postings such as “H-1Bs Only” or “H-1Bs and OPT Preferred.”