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Hiring

Concerns about immigration status don’t equal national-origin discrimination

11/12/2008

Employees who claim their employers somehow discriminated against them because they have immigration problems or aren’t U.S. citizens can’t automatically sue for national-origin discrimination under the Minnesota Human Rights Act or Title VII. Instead, they must prove that the underlying discrimination was based on national origin.

Document rationale for rejecting every job applicant—and stick with it

11/12/2008

Before you reject a candidate who appears to meet the basic requirements for an open position, make sure you can explain your decision. Then document your rationale in case he or she later claims the real reason for the rejection was some form of discrimination.

Our applicant turns out to be a transgender—can we revoke the job offer?

11/12/2008

Q. Our company has just made a job offer to a highly qualified man to work in our company’s IT department. During the final stages of our interviewing process, the candidate told us that “she” is transgendered —that she would be transitioning from male to female. We believe employing a transgender employee could be very disruptive and cause a morale problem in the company. Can we rescind the offer based on the candidate’s transgender status?

Minn. companies honored for employing disabled

11/12/2008

The Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities has recognized 11 companies for their innovative approaches to employing developmentally disabled workers. Award recipients include three grocery stores: Coborn’s in Buffalo, Byerly’s in Golden Valley and Culver’s in Stillwater.

Kroger Company accused of race discrimination

11/10/2008

Luther Spears worked for the Kroger Company for 24 years. He repeatedly applied for management positions in the produce department, but was never promoted. Meanwhile, Spears, who is black, trained younger white employees who were promoted over him. Spears finally filed a complaint with the EEOC …

Will we violate the ADA if we enforce our legitimate lifting restriction?

11/10/2008

Q. Our restaurant has a written requirement that waiters be able to lift, transport and carry objects weighing from 25 to 30 pounds up to 20 or more times per shift. An applicant for a server job has informed us on his application that he has a condition that prevents him from lifting more than 10 pounds and that there are no accommodations that could be made so he can perform all of the job duties. Are we going to be in violation of the ADA if we deny a job to this applicant?

If you hire illegal workers, better pay them

11/10/2008

An employee is an employee, regardless of his or her right to be present in the United States and work here. Thus, even illegal immigrants who were hourly employees can sue for back pay if their employers didn’t pay at least minimum wage and overtime.

‘Virtual’ job fairs save money, click with candidates

11/10/2008

When tax firm KPMG wanted to fill hundreds of positions worldwide, it held an enormous job fair that attracted 20,000 candidates. But nobody showed up in person. The two-day, round-the-clock fair was entirely online. More organizations are tapping the global reach of the Internet to recruit employees …

Call security! But don’t micromanage them

11/07/2008

If you hire a security company to help keep your workplace safe for customers and employees, make sure your supervisors don’t wind up providing specific direction to the guards the company assigns to your company. If you and your staff resist the temptation to control their every move and give them just general instructions, the security company and its guards remain independent contractors. That’s important for liability reasons.

Firing justified if applicant failed to reveal checkered past

11/07/2008

Sometimes, candidates filling out job applications think it’s a good idea to omit information about minor criminal convictions and past problems such as terminations. If your application specifically asks for that information and someone you hired didn’t supply it, you can terminate for lying on the application.