Palantir Case Draws Attention to Discriminatory Potential of Referral Programs

Engineers who work at the data-mining company Palantir don’t know enough Asian people. Or at least that’s the implication in a lawsuit the federal Labor Department filed against the company on Monday, claiming it discriminated against Asian job applicants for several types of technical jobs. Asians made up 73 percent of the qualified applicants for one internship position, but only 19 percent of the people Palantir ended up hiring. The likelihood of such a disparity occurring by random chance? Approximately one in a billion.

The government doesn’t attribute this practice to overt racism. Instead, it says Palantir relies too heavily its own employees to put people they know up for jobs, a practice the lawsuit says disproportionately excluded Asians. The company made more than half of its hires through an employee referral program, according to the suit. Palantir issued a statement saying the Labor Department’s analysis of its hiring was flawed. It didn’t respond to a request to discuss its referral program.