Cloudera barred from PERM program two years, pays $1.4m back pay over US-worker bias
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the Department of Labor announced a coordinated resolution with Cloudera Inc. over alleged discrimination against qualified US workers during PERM recruitment. The settlement pairs a two-year debarment from the labor certification program with a back-pay fund, civil penalties and ongoing compliance obligations. For any employer running PERM sponsorship, this item signals how the two agencies are now working the same case in tandem.
- Cloudera will be barred from participating in the PERM program for two years, following DOL's earlier suspension of its PERM processing.
- The company will establish a $1.4 million back-pay fund for qualified US workers who tried to apply for the jobs at issue but were not given fair consideration.
- Cloudera will pay $600,000 in civil penalties and resolves a DOJ lawsuit filed in April alleging INA violations across seven PERM positions.
- Cloudera accepts compliance obligations including enhanced monitoring, revised PERM procedures and reporting requirements.
- DOJ said this is the fourteenth settlement since it relaunched its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025.