The U.S. Department of Labor filed an administrative lawsuit against Palantir Technologies on Monday, alleging that the data analytics and security company systematically discriminated against Asian job applicants. Cofounded by billionaire Peter Thiel, the data analysis company is among the most highly vaunted of Silicon Valley startups, securing a $20 billion valuation last year, in part for its contracts with the US Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Special Operations Command and the Army. "From at least January 1, 2010 and going forward to the present, Palantir utilised a four-phase hiring process in which Asian applicants were routinely eliminated during the resume, screen and telephone interview phase despite being as qualified as white applicants with respect to the QA Engineer, Software Engineer and QA Engineer Intern positions," the lawsuit paperwork reads. Lisa Gordon, a spokeswoman for Palantir, said the companywill defend itself “vigorously” and denies allegations of bias. Ian Eliasoph, civil rights counsel for the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, said Palantir was randomly selected for a review, which examines the number of applicants for a given position compared with applicants’ demographics. There were 130 applicants, of whom around 73% were Asian. 'One in 3.4 million chance'

The government identified three staff roles for which it alleges there was biased recruiting:

When recruiting for a quality assurance engineer, the firm hired six non-Asian staff and one Asian from a pool of 730 applicants, of whom roughly 77% were Asian

There were 1,160 qualified applicants for a software engineer position, of whom approximately 85% were Asian, but Palantir hired 14 non-Asians and 11 Asians

When recruiting for a quality engineer intern, the firm hired 17 non-Asians and four Asians. “The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a billion,” said the lawsuit, which was filed with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges. However, Palantir said the Labor Department relied on a “narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011.”

Employment and civil rights attorney Cliff Palefsky said it was unusual to see hiring discrimination involving Asians. But Tracy Chou, of Silicon Valley-based diversity and inclusion organization Project Include, said discrimination against Asians for senior positions has been widely publicized. Since January 2010, Palantir has been a party to federal government contracts worth over $340 million, the lawsuit said. The Labor Department is asking an administrative law judge to award lost wages, interest, retroactive seniority and all other lost benefits of employment.
The Obama administration through the United States Department of Labor sues Peter Thiel's Palantir Technologies for alleged discrimination against Asians in its hiring practices.