Documenting promotions, pay increases, and other changes in work status for all workers in order to avoid claims of discrimination or bias based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion or age is more important now than ever before. Walmart is being charged with the largest class action employment lawsuit in history, which was filed by six women who had previously been employed by Walmart.

The lawsuit charges that Walmart pays female employees less than men, and favors men over women for promotions. Typically, lawsuits such as this are handled on an individual basis, but “courts may allow plaintiffs who were harmed under similar circumstances by the same person or company to join together in a common class of litigants to pursue their lawsuit.”

Members of the class action lawsuit “held a multitude of jobs, at different levels of Wal-Mart’s hierarchy, for variable lengths of time, in 3,400 stores, sprinkled across 50 states, with a kaleidoscope of supervisors (male and female), subject to a variety of regional policies that all differed depending on each class member’s job, location and period of employment.” The class includes 1.5 million women who all are claiming that Walmart intentionally discriminated against them based on their gender.

Keeping accurate records and documentation about why your company hires, promotes, or fires one person over another is extremely important to avoid a situation like this. For helpful tips on hiring, firing, and managing personnel, HR Made Simple Users should log in.

The process of hiring a new employee is time consuming, and can be overwhelming when you are swamped by large numbers of applicants. Finding the best applicant for the position is the number one priority, and companies may overlook the importance of sending out rejection letters.

According to Tim Gould “…Survey after survey indicates there’s one thing prospective workers hate about the application process—the fact that they never hear from a company after an interview.” Although it is clear that the applicant didn’t receive the job when they never hear from a company after an interview, it is still important for the company to send a rejection letter. Not sending a rejection letter says to the applicant that the company “doesn’t even care enough about people to send a courtesy letter.” This is not the type of public image that most companies work to build.

One reason many companies may overlook sending rejection letters, is that they don’t know what to put in and what to leave out. Here are some tips to help make writing rejection letters an easier task:

• Don’t put in the “we’ll keep your resume on file” statement. Although this is standard in most rejection letters, such a promise could potentially create legal problems. Some applicants may take this to mean that they will be considered for all future openings, and you don’t want to have to re-interview rejected candidates every time a new position opens up.

• Don’t send a form letter. Although it’s easy to send out a simple form letter to everyone who didn’t make the cut, sending an impersonal letter can be just as insulting as getting no letter at all.

• Don’t get into specifics. Avoid sharing any information about the person who get the position, and there is no reason to explain in detail why the applicant wasn’t chosen for the position. Sharing this type of information could lead the rejected applicant to decide their qualifications were better than the chosen candidate’s and possibly lead them to conclude they weren’t chosen for some other factor, such as discrimination.

For more information on writing rejection letters, HRMade Simple Users can log in and search “Rejection Letters” for more information.

Please join us on August 12th, 2010 for a free webinar on COBRA- Rules, Regulations and Administration. COBRA Administration can be a time consuming and frustrating job. It can be easy for people to get confused regarding COBRA,  especially with recent changes in the rules and extensions. Join HRSentry for an overview and update on COBRA Rule and Regulations and learn some easy tips to make COBRA Administration easier.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, August 12th from 2:00-3:00 p.m. and it will be presented by Brenda JM Sabin, CHP HRSentry’s Director of Operations and Site Administration.

For more information and to register for the webinar please visit our website at www.hrsentry.com.

During an interview have you ever asked a potential employee how old they were? Or if they were married? Did you know that both of these questions are illegal to ask a potential employee during an interview? Questions like these that may seem innocent and can be considered typical “getting to know you” type of questions are actually illegal to ask during an interview. It is important to avoid asking these types of questions to potential employees because your organization could become tangled up in a discriminatory hiring practices legal mess or lawsuit.

Questions asked during an interview should focus on the qualifications for the job. Most human resources personnel are aware of qhat constitues an illegal or legal question, but others involved in the interview process may not be. Here are some example of legal and illegal questions:

Legal Questions include:

• What education do you have?
• What experience qualifies you for this job?
• Do you have specific licenses or certifications that pertain to this job?
• Are you willing to travel?
• Do you have a legal right to work in the United States?
• Are you available for overtime?

Illegal Questions include:

• What is your age or date of birth?
• What is your sexual orientation?
• What church do you attend?
• What is your national origin?
• What is your marital status?

In addition to these questions, there are both more legal and illegal questions that can come up during the interview process. Every recruiter, hiring manager, executive, and department manager must realize that asking the wrong interview questions or making improper inquiries can lead to discrimination or wrongful-discharge lawsuits, and these suits can be won or lost based on statements made during the interview process. Be aware of what the potential candidates are being asked during the interview process, and make sure everyone involved in the process is aware of what types of questions can and can not be asked.

For more information, HR Made Simple users should log in and search “interviews.”

The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released a new fact sheet on break time in the workplace for nursing mothers under the FLSA. The fact sheet provides general information on the break time requirements for nursing mothers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These new requirements took effect when the PPACA was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The new FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk does not preempt State laws that provide greater protections to employees.

The new fact sheet provides general requirements for employers. Employers are now required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” In addition to this, employers are required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from a view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”

The new fact sheet also details the time and location of breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk. The fact sheet states that “…employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.”  Since there is no set time for the length of breaks, or how often an employee may take these breaks, it is important to try and be flexible and accommodating and allow the employee to take breaks as needed.

The location that the company or organization provides for the nursing mother to express breast milk must be functional as a space for expressing breast milk, and may not be a bathroom even if it is a private bathroom.  However, the space the company or organization provides for the nursing mother does not have to function solely as a space for expressing breast milk, but it must be available when it is needed in order to meet the statutory requirements.

Employers are not required under the FLSA to provide breaks to nursing mothers who are exempt from the overtime pay requirements of Section 7, but businesses should be aware that they may be obligated to provide such breaks under State laws. In addition to this, employers with fewer than fifty employees are not subject to the FLSA break time requirement if compliance with the provision would impose an undue hardship.

HR Made Simple Users should log in to view additional resources, or for more information visit:

WHD Fact Sheet #73, Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the FLSA

WHD Fact Sheet #22, Hours Worked under the FLSA .

http://www.wagehour.dol.gov