THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502250258
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
When going after a hot recruit, some companies can offer a noncash bonus: Come work for us, and we'll hire your spouse too.
Other companies can't, or won't. They have policies against hiring relatives of an employee.
Conscious that corporate restructurings are forcing employees to work longer hours, leaving them less time to socialize outside work, some companies are softening nepotism hiring restrictions. Other companies, seeing more and more of their employees dating each other, are establishing nepotism policies for the first time.
The overall trend is for flexible nepotism policies, rather than an across-the-board ban on hiring relatives of an employee, said William M. Furr, an employment lawyer with Willcox & Savage PC.
``I think you're seeing now a lot of people dating in the workplace and marrying, and companies are saying, `That's OK, as long as you don't supervise your spouse,' '' Furr said.
A smattering of states have laws addressing nepotism. Oregon and Colorado, for instance, prohibit companies from refusing to hire a person because heor she is married to an employee. In Colorado, the only exemption is for companies with fewer than 25 employees.
Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington and Florida have statutes saying that a no-spouse rule violates those states' anti-discrimination laws, unless companies can show ``a business necessity'' for the policy.
Virginia has no such law, Furr said, and companies with anti-nepotism policies only have be careful not to violate federal civil rights laws.
Hampton Roads employers' nepotism policies cover the range of possibilities, from no restrictions to requiring one partner of a couple who meets at work to resign after they marry, according to several companies contacted.
Such restrictions are permitted under Virginia law, but Furr said the Virginia Human Rights Act does prohibit discrimination against married couples. Strict nepotism policies - ones that require one partner to quit after a couple marries - have yet to be challenged in court on those grounds.
``Maybe there will be a test case soon where somebody in Virginia will sue a company that has a nepotism policy saying, `You're discriminating against me because of my marital status,' '' Furr said.
But even companies with loose rules usually forbid one spouse from supervising another, which is Norfolk Southern Corp.'s policy.
Landmark Communications Inc., which owns The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, prohibits hiring relatives within the same division. The company will not hire a married couple. But if two people meet at work and marry, Landmark doesn't force one of them to leave.
Sentara Health System will employ a couple, with the restriction that they not report to the same supervisor.
``I thought our policy was no hiring of couples,'' said Debbie Myers, spokeswoman for Sentara. ``I was glad to find out that it wasn't, especially in an industry like ours where you've got some hard-to-recruit positions.'' by CNB