Author: Site Staff

Employers’ growing use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to scrutinize job applicants could lead to charges of employment discrimination and litigation, experts warn.

    Observers say that without adequate policies in place, employers may be leaving themselves vulnerable to charges that they are using the data available on the Web sites to cull minorities, homosexuals and other applicants who are members of protected classes.

    With Facebook alone claiming 66 million active users, more employers are using these popular sites to check out job applicants, observers say.

    A survey of about 350 employers in October 2007 by New York-based Vault.com, a media company focused on careers, found that 44 percent of employers use social networking sites to examine the profiles of job candidates, and 39 percent have looked up the profile of a current employee.

    Observers say “failure to hire” lawsuits are far smaller in number than other types of employment litigation, such as those involving termination or charging retaliation, but they do expect litigation to emerge from employers’ growing use of social networking sites. Use of these sites could be used as evidence in litigation, even if it is not necessarily the primary motivation behind a lawsuit, they say.

    Few firms, however, have formal policies on this issue, experts say.

    Looking someone up on a Web site is not illegal because the Internet is public property, said Sue Murphy, manager of the National Human Resources Association.

    “But where the liability starts to come into play is when people are making hiring decisions based on that information without coming back and talking to the applicant,” she said. “I think it is going to be tested in the courts.”

    Observers say employers long ago stopped asking job applicants to submit photos with their job applications to avoid being accused of rejecting applicants on the basis of their age, race or other factors. Today, however, it often takes no more than the click of a mouse to locate an image of an applicant.

    If it is found employers have been looking at the sites, “I have a feeling you’re probably going to see lawsuits, and the burden is going to be back on the employer to show the protected category” did not enter into its “decision to hire or not hire,” said Anthony Zaller, an attorney with Van Vleck Turner & Zaller.

Be careful what you look at
    Matthew S. Effland, an attorney with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, said he knows of no decision so far “that says using this information is a violation of some employee’s rights, but the law is notoriously slow to catch up to technology. I very much see this becoming an issue in the future.”

    Non-demographic information also can be found on the Web sites. Miriam Wugmeister, an attorney with Morrison & Foerster, said employers should be wary of laws in some states, including New York, that say employers “can’t discriminate against somebody in employment based on activities they engage in, in their private time,” such as smoking.

    Many states’ laws also forbid making job decisions based on applicants’ political activities, Wugmeister said.

    This issue will lead to increased litigation, at least in the short term, “until some parameters are set” as to what is private and public knowledge, she said.

    “We haven’t yet settled on where the boundary is,” she said. As a result, “we may see legislation even more than litigation” on this issue, she said.

    “We have good-sense policies,” said Tim DeMello, founder and chief executive officer of Ziggs Inc., a firm that helps its clients manage their Internet “online brand.”

    DeMello said as an employer, he occasionally looks at applicants’ social networking sites to get some sense of their character. If you go to Facebook and see someone pictured with swastikas and then do not hire them, “do you call that discrimination?” he asked rhetorically.

    Employers should have a policy in place that “details what the purpose of the Internet search is,” and that specifically spells out that the firm does not base its decision on race, color or national origin, said Effland.

    Jennifer M. Bombard, an attorney with Morgan, Brown & Joy, said, “Make sure there’s a legitimate business rationale for rejecting applicants and that your hiring decisions are not motivated by information you found on an applicant’s social networking site. Make sure you can point to a legitimate reason for rejecting” the applicant and document and be prepared to justify that decision, she said.

Unfair inference
    Neal D. Mollen, an attorney with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, advised employers to avoid looking at social networking sites altogether.

    “I think it’s unlikely employers are going to learn a good deal of job-related information from a Facebook page they won’t learn in the context of a well-run interview, so the potential benefit of doing this sort of search is outweighed by the potential risk.”

    Tim Best, president of PreScreen America, a background investigation agency, said he tells his clients not to use these sites. If the information an employer learns turns out to be false and relies on it in making a decision, the company is in danger of being sued, he said.

    “It’s at best risky doing that,” said Best, who is chairman of the Privacy and Personnel Information Management Council of ASIS International, a security organization.

    Refraining from checking the Web sites in the prescreening stages protects “the employer from an unfair inference that they relied on demographic data that was not visible on the application,” said Manesh K. Rath, an attorney with Keller & Heckman.

    But once the candidate has been met, “I think that employers are entitled to consider the whole of an applicant,” said Rath, who is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management’s expertise panel.

    Gerald L. Maatman Jr., an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw, said the pros and cons of seeking out this information should be weighed. If there is a subsequent discrimination suit, and an employer honestly acknowledges having looked at a social networking site, “it makes that case more problematic to defend.”

    Filed by Business Insurance, a sister publication of  Workforce Management.
 

You can forget reports showing a surprising improvement in the labor market.

The Labor Department released its weekly report on unemployment Thursday, April 3—and the news was not cheery.

Indeed, the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits soared by 38,000 last week. That’s the highest reading since September 2005, reinforcing fears that the U.S. economy has stalled.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors to explain the increase in initial claims during the week ended March 29, but he said seasonal adjustments to the data owing to the early timing of the Easter public holiday this year may have influenced the reading.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected initial jobless claims to increase to 370,000 in the week ending March 29, compared with 369,000 the prior week.

But the numbers were far worse than that. The new data shows 407,000 initial unemployment claims were filed last week.

What’s more, the four-week moving average of new claims—thought to be a more reliable guide to underlying labor market trends—also increased sharply. It rose to 374,500, which was the highest reading since October 2005.

Analysts fear a housing slump and credit crunch may have tipped the U.S. economy into recession and are scrutinizing the labor market for evidence of slackening jobs that could chill consumer spending.

Today’s report should give those analysts a pretty clear view of which way things are heading.

Filed by Financial Week, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

3M Co. is phasing out its pension plan in favor of an enriched 401(k) plan as the exodus of major employers from the defined benefit plan system continues.

Employees hired on or after January 1, 2009, will be covered by a new 401(k) plan, to which 3M will make an automatic contribution equal to 3 percent of employee pay. It also will fully match employees’ salary deferrals, up to 6 percent of pay.

The diversified products manufacturer, though, is retaining pension plan coverage for current employees and is raising its 401(k) plan match. 3M now matches 35 percent to 50 percent of deferrals, up to the first 6 percent of pay.

The new plans “will help us attract and retain talent and address the needs of today’s changing workforce, which desires more portability and greater involvement in decisions affecting their financial futures,” Jan Angell, 3M’s vice president of compensation and benefits, said in a statement.

At the end of 2007, 3M’s pension plan was overfunded, with $11.1 billion in assets and $10.2 billion in obligations. St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M reported $4.1 billion in net income in 2007 on $24.5 billion in sales.

Other corporate giants that in recent years have announced phase-outs of their defined-benefit plans include Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Lockheed-Martin Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.

Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

Employers still have a lot of work to do to make their wellness programs more effective, according to a study released Thursday, April 3, by Hewitt Associates.

While companies are devoting more time and money into helping employees live healthier lifestyles, employees aren’t sure they want their employers taking on this role, according to Hewitt.

Eighty-eight percent of employers surveyed plan to invest in ways to improve the health and productivity of their workforces, up from 66 percent last year.

But only 12 percent of employees believe that it’s appropriate for their employer to play this role. This presents a huge challenge for companies, says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

“Employees trust their doctors and view them as the sole people who own their health,” he says.

Even employees who do take a health risk assessments as part of their company’s wellness program often don’t act on their results, the study finds.

While eight out of 10 employees took a health risk questionnaire when given the opportunity, 40 percent of them didn’t take any actions based on specific recommendations provided by the follow-up report, according to the study.

That’s not good news for employers, particularly since more than half of employees or their dependents have a chronic health condition, the study says.

The problem is that too often companies rely on incentives or penalties to get employees to participate in their wellness programs, Winkler says. While offering a carrot or stick may help initially, companies need to think more about long-term ways to motivate employees to join and become engaged with their wellness programs.

Employers need to take a look at their corporate culture and figure out what motivates their employees. They also need to focus on health issues that are relevant to their workforces, Winkler says. “February was Healthy Heart Month, but does that make sense for your population?” he says.

Employees can get burned out on messaging if it’s not relevant, Winkler says. “If one year is about losing weight, the next year is stop smoking and the next year is get your screenings, people are going to get fatigued,” he says. “Employers need to refresh their messaging, but keep it relevant.”

One way to do this is by “negative framing,” or targeting employees about a specific health concern, says Tim Stentiford, a principal at Hewitt. For example, one manufacturing company with a large male population recently sent out postcards to employees’ homes that depicted a 57-year-old man saying that he had just found out he had colon cancer. “They scrapped the 24-page guide on prevention and wellness and chose this instead,” he says.

The postcards included information on what steps employees should take regarding how to get a colonoscopy and where they could find more information based on what health care provider they used.

Another way that companies can keep employees engaged in their wellness programs is by making their benefits portals easier to use, Stentiford says. Right now there is too much information and it’s too confusing for employees to figure out what they should do, he says.

“For most employees right now there would be 13 different resources just for diabetes,” he says.

Many companies are figuring out ways to make it easier for employees to find the information they need. In some cases, this means not requiring employees to sign in to find information, like doctors in their areas or phone numbers for specific services, Stentiford says.

“Employers are taking off their HR and benefits hats and putting on their employee hats to figure out where there might be issues,” he says.

—Jessica Marquez

A shortage of commissioners has caused the National Labor Relations Board to set aside about 15 percent of the cases in its pipeline, according to its recently appointed chairman.

Only two people are serving on what should be a five-person board that administers federal law governing labor organizing. Nominees for the other three positions haven’t been confirmed by the Senate, as the Democratic majority tussles with President Bush over dozens of nominations.

Peter Schaumber, a current NLRB member who was elevated to chairman by Bush on March 18, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, April 2, that the board continues to operate.

Schaumber and Wilma Liebman, who was appointed by President Clinton, issued 54 decisions from January 1 through the end of February. For the last five fiscal years, the board has issued 500 cases annually.

The short-handed board is limiting its agenda. “We cannot decide cases which raise issues of first impression and we can’t revisit board law,” Schaumber said in an interview following his Capitol Hill appearance. He has instructed NLRB staff to look for older cases in which there is likely to be common ground between him and Liebman.

During the hearing, they disagreed on how the NLRB has performed during the Bush administration, when it has had a Republican majority.

Schaumber said that in fiscal year 2007 the board issued decisions on 105 of 111 post-union-vote appeals in a median time of 131 days and resolved 78 percent of representation cases within 100 days.

The board has reduced its case backlog by 66.5 percent over five years to a total of 207 cases. In the last fiscal year, it has collected $110.3 million in back wages and reinstated 2,456 employees.

“The agency’s accomplishments, gauged by almost any statistical measure, have been impressive,” Schaumber said.

Liebman asserted that the board is biased toward management, undermining worker confidence in its ability to protect their organizing rights.

“More and more, unions are seeking to negotiate recognition in the workplace, rather than use the board’s election machinery,” she said in prepared testimony. “The board’s procedures are seen as taking too long, leaving workers vulnerable to coercion by employers and generating campaign animosity that can taint a new bargaining relationship.”

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on labor, also expressed skepticism. He wasn’t impressed with the $110 million in back-pay recovery over the last fiscal year.

“What that doesn’t tell us is how many [companies] didn’t have to pay back pay,” he said. “That sounds like a lot of money. We don’t know what that means in the broad picture.”

He also was frustrated by the lack of statistics on how many unfair-labor-practice complaints are filed during unionization campaigns.

Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregon, said that one in 17 eligible voters in a workplace union election are fined, demoted or suspended. He argued that companies have too much power to squelch efforts to establish collective bargaining.

“They’re problems that require fundamental changes in the law,” he said.

But John Raudabaugh, a partner at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, attributed the drop in unionization—currently 12 percent of all workers—to changes in the economy that have hurt such sectors as manufacturing, where unions are strongest.

He said that in the last fiscal year, unions won 54 percent of 1,559 workplace elections, the same success rate that they achieved in the early 1970s.

“Unionization is in decline in most Western democracies,” Schaumber said.

Liebman maintained that rising income inequality demonstrates that the National Labor Relations Act, which has been in place for more than 60 years, is not working and needs to be reformed.
—Mark Schoeff Jr.

Pressure is mounting in the five-week-old United Auto Workers strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

In developments over the past two days, Automotive News revealed that within two weeks the stoppage will shut production of General Motors’ hit sedan the Chevrolet Malibu. More GM car assembly plants, including its operations in Lordstown, Ohio, are threatened.

Also, American Axle CEO Richard E. Dauch placed want ads in various newspapers for possible replacement workers to restart production at the five striking plants.

And GM has moved a small but significant parts contract from American Axle to archrival Dana Holding Corp., Automotive News has learned.

Taken together, these are signs of restlessness that should bring American Axle and the UAW back in earnest to the bargaining table—and perhaps GM too, said Aaron Bragman, research analyst with the suburban Detroit office of Global Insight Inc.

“I think you’re going to see these talks take on a more urgent tone,” Bragman said.

Hot seller
GM cannot afford to lose Malibu production, Bragman said. The redesigned vehicle is one of the few shining stars in a stable that overall experienced a U.S. sales drop of 13 percent in March and 11.4 percent in the quarter compared with a year ago.

But GM is running out of a key American Axle part for the Malibu—a knuckle on the rear suspension.

American Axle is the only producer of the part for the sedans built at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, and the Orion, Michigan, assembly plant in suburban Detroit. Within two weeks, the knuckle shortage will shut production of the G6 sedan at Orion.

GM’s role in any strike settlement probably would be limited, says Dave Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, an automotive think tank in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

So far, GM has stayed out of the talks, allowing the strike at American Axle to reduce high inventories of light trucks on dealership lots. About 30 GM plants are either closed or operating at partial capacity because of parts shortages.

GM could make a deal that allows some of the 3,650 striking UAW workers to hire in at GM at top wages if a GM buyout program opens positions, Cole said. But the automaker would want something in return, perhaps lower prices for axles and other parts, Cole said.

Cash help unlikely
What’s unlikely is that GM, which spun off American Axle in 1994, would offer cash to help American Axle buy out workers or buy down their wages in exchange for one-time bonuses, Cole said.

GM had to pay at Delphi Corp. because of UAW contract provisions that called on the automaker to help in an emergency. That’s not the case with American Axle, Cole said.

On the other hand, Cole said, GM does not want to see the strike, which began February 26, affect Malibu production.

During a conference call Tuesday, April 1, Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of North America sales, service and marketing, declined to comment on the American Axle situation, except to say that GM still had adequate inventories of most vehicles. American Axle provides axles and other parts for all GM pickups and SUVs built in North America.

In a press release Tuesday, American Axle said it had provided the UAW with additional requested information to promote bargaining. An American Axle spokeswoman did not return phone calls Tuesday.

In a statement released late Tuesday, UAW vice president James Settles Jr. said American Axle provided information originally requested by the UAW’s bargaining team on December 7.

The delay is one factor that caused the strike at American Axle, Settles said, contending the delay violated federal labor law.

The strike was also caused, according to Settles, by American Axle’s termination of disability payments, health care coverage and compensation for injured and laid-off workers.

Said Settles: “We hope the company will do what is required to meet its legal obligation to provide data necessary for bargaining—and reinstate benefits to injured and laid-off workers—so that we can settle this dispute and bring our members back to work as soon as possible.”

Filed by David Barkholz and Robert Sherefkin of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

Republican lawmakers are trying to jump-start a bill that would raise limits on visas for foreign workers who staff seasonal industries, a move they say would aid faltering businesses in their districts.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-Louisiana, introduced a measure on Tuesday, April 1, that would send directly to the House floor a bill that would almost double the number of workers who can enter the country on temporary H-2B visas.

Also on Tuesday, foreign nationals who say they have been exploited by employers using H-2B visas held a briefing for congressional staff. They called for a hearing to explore abuses in the system.

Capitol Hill activity has been spurred by complaints from hospitality, seafood processing, landscaping, construction and other industries that say they can’t find enough workers.

The 66,000 limit for H-2B visas was hit in early January. Last year, a total of 120,000 workers entered the country because those returning to their jobs didn’t count against the 66,000 cap. That provision expired this year.

A bill written by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, would restore the returning worker rule. It has 146 bipartisan co-sponsors but has been stalled by tensions surrounding immigration policy.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus doesn’t want the H-2B bill to move forward alone because it is pursuing comprehensive immigration reform. Last year, a broad immigration bill died in the Senate during a rancorous debate about enforcement and a path toward residency for illegal workers.

Republicans blame Democratic leadership for holding up the H-2B bill. Boustany needs 218 House members to sign a “discharge petition” that would allow the bill to bypass committee action and go straight to the House floor.

Stupak is one name that won’t be appearing on the document. “My discussions with House leadership continue and I remain hopeful that they will lead to the quick action needed for seasonal businesses in northern Michigan and across the country,” Stupak said in a statement.

Rice, sugar, shellfish producers and construction firms are suffering in Louisiana, according to Boustany.

“They can’t find the workforce,” Boustany said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “They depended on H-2B visas over the years to meet these needs. This is good policy that’s being held hostage by politics.”

Some foreign workers who have been brought to the U.S. on H-2B visas, however, contend that the program exploits workers lured here by false promises of good jobs.

In a meeting with about 80 congressional staff, they said that employers can lord over H-2B holders because the visas are for a short duration, only about six to 10 months. During that time, they have no freedom to leave a bad employer, live under constant threat of deportation and lack access to lawyers.

Sabul Vijayan is among 100 Indian guest workers who are suing the Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, for alleged human trafficking.

Vijayan sold his wife’s jewelry and used money he had been saving for a home in India to pay a recruiter $20,000 to secure a position as a pipe fitter. Once he arrived, he was forced to bunk with 24 workers in one room.

When they complained about living conditions and the poor quality of food, they were subject to verbal abuse. When a few of the workers tried to organize, they were locked in a room for six hours. During the ordeal, Vijayan tried to kill himself and was later fired.

“The H-2B visa as it is structured now is an instrument to create servitude and modern-day slavery,” said Daniel Castellanos, a Peruvian H-2B worker and a leader of the Alliance for Guest Worker Dignity. Castellanos is suing his former employer, the Decatur Hotel in New Orleans.

Castellanos and Vijayan spoke at an event hosted by the House Education and Labor Committee. The chair of the panel, Rep. George Miller, D-California, has introduced a bill that would increase the transparency of H-2B jobs, make employers jointly liable for the actions of recruiters and impose heavy fines for misconduct.

Miller’s H-2B skepticism is another obstacle to raising the program caps. Miller is a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California.

—Mark Schoeff Jr.

Just as Capitol Hill is getting back to work after its two-week spring recess, the cap on visas for highly skilled immigrants is likely to be exceeded for the second consecutive year.

Companies that contend they desperately need to hire foreign talent, especially in the technology sector, don’t expect Congress to raise immigration limits.

Applications for H-1B visas are due on April 1 and probably will breach the 65,000 ceiling that day, resulting in a random lottery to determine allocation.

While the struggle at the high end of the immigration spectrum continues, a revived federal regulation may put many low-wage workers at risk.

On March 26, the Department of Homeland Security reissued a rule that would force companies to either resolve within 90 days discrepancies between a worker’s name and Social Security number or fire the employee. It would effectively make so-called “no-match” letters evidence of the illegal hiring.

The action is part of an ongoing federal immigration enforcement crackdown following the collapse of comprehensive immigration reform last year in Congress.

DHS originally announced the regulation in August. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction in October after business, labor and immigration groups filed suit. The plaintiffs argued that that the rule would result in lawful employees being terminated and in discrimination against immigrants.

DHS will gather public comments for the next month on the new regulation, which has only been tweaked from the original. It will then issue a final rule and submit it to U.S. Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Breyer will decide whether to lift the injunction. DHS also has appealed Breyer’s order separately.

Opponents of the no-match rule assert that flawed Social Security databases, which show problems with the information for millions of people, will crimp the U.S. hiring system. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff calls the rule “an important tool” in halting illegal employment.

“We didn’t expect them to issue the exact same rule again,” said Laura Reiff, co-chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a group of business associations. “We’re on pins and needles a little bit about what could happen.”

For companies seeking to hire foreign nationals graduating from U.S. universities, the situation is clearer. There will again be too few H-1B visas to meet demand.

This means that U.S. companies will lose top talent to international competitors, according to business interest groups. They will be forced to relocate operations to countries with more welcoming immigration rules. For instance, Microsoft opened a research facility in Vancouver, British Columba, last summer.

“It’s a national problem that deserves a national response by our national leaders,” said Robert Hoffman, vice president of government and public affairs for Oracle and co-chair of Compete America.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates made a similar pitch at a March 12 hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee. His appearance catalyzed the introduction of a couple bills to raise the H-1B caps.

But Congress may not act because of the volatile atmosphere surrounding immigration. Last year, a broad Senate bill that would have strengthened border and work-site enforcement while creating a path toward legal residency for undocumented workers died acrimoniously.

Since then, it has been difficult to isolate immigration issues—such as raising visa levels—and move them in separate bills. “The message that’s been given to us is it’s all or nothing,” Hoffman said.

The other problem is that combating illegal immigration has bipartisan political appeal.

“The environment seems to be focused on enforcement and not on competitiveness and getting the workers we need,” said Rebecca Peters, director and legislative affairs counsel for the American Council for International Personnel.

Even if H-1B legislation gets traction, it will have to overcome skeptics of the program who say that it lowers wages in the tech sector and denies jobs to U.S. workers.

Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced a bill that would require all companies applying for H-1B visas to certify that they have tried to hire U.S. workers first, mandate that employers pay a prevailing wage and prohibit them from outsourcing H-1B employees to other companies.

Another critic, Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, proposed that the H-1B allocations be based not on a lottery but on how much an employer is willing to pay. Those offering the highest salary would secure the foreign talent.

But Victor Johnson, senior advisor for public policy for the Association of International Educators, said that U.S. workers losing jobs to H-1B holders is not a problem.

“It has to be looked at as a competitiveness issue, not a labor issue,” Johnson said. “These are scarce skills.”

—Mark Schoeff Jr.

CFOs say recession concerns in the U.S. are already tempering their companies’ budgets, spending and hiring, according to the latest survey of CFOs conducted by Financial Executives International and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business.

When asked their view of a potential recession in the U.S. in the current year, 41 percent of the CFOs surveyed said they think the U.S. is currently in a recession, while another third think it’s likely to go into a recession in the next six months. Only 18 percent said they did not expect the U.S. to go into a recession in 2008.

Given that pessimistic mood, it’s hardly surprising that 34 percent of the CFOs said they had delayed the implementation of business-related spending during the first quarter of the year.

Last week, for example, General Motors CFO Ray Young indicated the automaker had put some capital projects on hold to help conserve cash.

“What we are hearing from CFOs is, recession or not, they are taking defensive measures to combat the economic slowdown,” said John Elliott, dean of the Zicklin School of Business. “This quarter’s survey revealed that almost half of the CFOs are in agreement with U.S. economists and believe we are currently in a recession.”

Finance chiefs are also looking at other ways to rein in costs. Close to half of the CFOs surveyed identified hiring as an area for cutbacks. Nearly a quarter cited layoffs.

Despite the plans for curbing hiring or laying off workers, average net hiring by the survey group’s employers is set to increase 3 percent this year.

“However, that’s down noticeably from prior quarters and most are delaying previous hiring plans,” Elliott said. “They have a budget in place that was set in November or December, but the world looks different now.”

It sure does. The weakening dollar doesn’t seem to be boosting CFOs’ morale, either. While about a third of the finance chiefs reported that the declining dollar has led to increased international sales, those gains appear to be offset in some cases by rising prices. Over half the respondents said they have seen an increase in the costs of commodities and raw materials. And a third said their quarterly earnings have decreased.

Of note to policymakers: When asked about the economic stimulus bill, only 12 percent of CFOs said they would increase equipment purchases to take advantage of the recently passed stimulus bill, which allows for stepped-up depreciation on equipment purchased and placed into service in 2008.

For more on the survey, click here.

Filed by John Goff (with additional reporting by Frank Byrt) of Financial Week [hotlink this, please], a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

The UAW strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. that has halted light-truck production at General Motors will push the automaker to close its first car assembly plant and possibly another.

GM confirmed Friday, March 28, that it will shut its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, which builds the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne sedans.

“GM informed employees at Detroit-Hamtramck that production will be idled following Friday’s production,” GM spokesman Dan Flores wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News. “So effective Monday, March 31st, [the plant] will be down.”

GM also may stop building the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 in Lordstown, Ohio, by April 4 because of a shortage of a brake parts made by American Axle, the Associated Press reported Thursday, March 27.

GM would not discuss future production at Lordstown.

“Lordstown is running regular production,” Flores said in the e-mail Friday.

GM had a 53 days’ supply of Chevrolet Cobalts and a 110 days’ supply of Pontiac G5 cars as of March 1. Buick Lucerne inventories were at 100 days’ supply and the Cadillac DTS at 59 days’ supply.

Erich Merkle, an automotive analyst with IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said a shutdown of the plants would be unlikely to force GM’s hand in the monthlong American Axle strike.

“It’s a little bit of an ‘ouch,’ but it’s certainly something that’s survivable,” Merkle said. “GM could still probably afford to stand on the sidelines a little while longer.”

He said that supplies of the affected vehicles were largely in good shape, excluding the Cobalt, and that the big concern for GM is still its pickups and SUVs. Merkle said GM makes much higher profits on the sale of trucks and SUVs, but many remain on dealership lots.

GM truck inventories were equivalent to 106 days’ supply as of March 1.

The 3,650-worker strike at American Axle, which began February 26, has forced seven GM light-truck assembly plants to close, along with 22 parts operations in North America. Several suppliers also have slowed or idled plants that supply GM.

No progress has been reported in talks between the UAW and American Axle, which is demanding deep cuts in pay and benefits to remain competitive with other driveline parts makers.

GM depends on axles from the Detroit supplier for nearly all of its domestic light trucks.

Filed by Ryan Beene of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.