Rama Ramaswamy is the human resources director for a local, food distribution company and he needs to hire one person to be the manager for their plant in Rochester, MN. The job will require the following:

1. 50+ hours per week including overnights when neeed.

2. The staff is mostly men in their 30’s and 40s. A few women also work at the plant and they are in their 30s as well.

3. The new hire will have to work with machinery, deal with daily people issues, worry about inventory levels, safety, and customer communication.

4. The job pays $70,000 per year, but has no extra salary for overtime.

Rama meets with the following two candidates. 1. A 40 year old woman who has 10 years of plant management experience. She has a degree in Management and has outstanding references. During the interview, you find out that she is a single mom with three kids, and lives about 30 miles from the plant. She cannot relocate and is asking for $75K in base pay. She is very professional and quite goal oriented.

2. A 45 year old man who has only worked in the food business for about five years and has worked in the plant environment for about 2 years. He is actually a really good friend of one of the company vice presidents. He only lives about five miles away and tells you that he really enjoys playing golf in his spare time. Rama plays golf all the time. The man has no family and is very casual in his goals and dreams. He is asking for $70K.

After the interview, Rama gets a call from one of the vice presidents. The VP tells Rama that candidate number 2 would really thrive in the company and his golf skills could help create new business. Rama is now faced with a tough decision. He really likes the background of the 40 year old lady but is concerned about the family and her drive to the plant. Plus she wants more money.

The man is very cool and the VPs like him. He does not want more money, but his experience is not as good’s as the women.

After considering both candidates, Rama actually hires an internal candidate who works for the company already. The candidate is a 25 year old woman who has only worked for the company about 1 year, but has a degree in management and Rama knows he can hire her for only $50K a year.

After the young lady is hired, Rama is scolded by senior management and loses the ability to hire new employees.

OKAY.. 1. What went wrong here?

2. What employment laws did Rama break or did he?

3. What employment laws apply to this mini case?

4. What would you have done and why if you had the exact same situation as Rama?

5. What do you think is wrong with the company?