Palantir Technologies, a startup company that provides data analysis software to the federal government and privates companies like JP Morgan, is accused and being sued by the United States Department of Labor for "systematically discriminating" against Asian job applicants.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday today before administrative law judges, Palantir Technologies have manipulated both its hiring process and its referral procedures. Resolutions were attempted before the filing of the suit but to no success.
Beginning in 2010, Palantir's enlisting practices were analyzed by the Department of Labor as a means to statistically prove that the hiring patterns demonstrated bias.
One example that was found during the probe was for vacant software engineer positions, the company received 1,160 applicants, 85% were Asian. Only 11 out of the 25 hired were Asian which according to the lawsuit: "The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in 3.4 million,"
According to Buzzfeed, during a report on secession of major clients like Coca-Cola, "The company has resisted calls for it to go public, and instead remains "Silicon Valley's most secretive company."
A statement sent by Palantir via email said:
"We are disappointed that the Department of Labor chose to proceed with an administrative action and firmly deny the allegations."
"Despite repeated efforts to highlight the results of our hiring practices, the Department of Labor relies on a narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011."
We intend to vigorously defend against these allegations
Palantir, which is a name taken after the spiritual stone in The Lord of the Rings, was founded by CEO Alex Karp and Peter Thiel in 2004. Thiel, the venture capitalist who cofounded Paypal, made news earlier in the year for financing Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker and being one of the few entreprnuers to speak at the Republican National Convention.
