Secret memo lays out plan for older workers

If you are on the wrong side of 40 and not as fit as you'd like to be, don't bother applying for a job at Wal-Mart.

That is the message for workers in America, revealed in a secret memo laying out a plan by Wal-Mart to make it harder for older, less healthy people to get a job at one of its legions of stores in the US.

The memo, written by Wal-Mart's vice-president in charge of benefits, says undesirable applicants could be discouraged by making physical activity part of the interview process, such as asking potential cashiers to demonstrate they are also able to collect trolleys.

The tactics appear to be designed to drive down the bill for healthcare and other employee benefits at the company, which made $US10 billion ($14 billion) in profits last year.

For the world's largest retailer, which owns Asda in Britain, the leaking of the memo could hardly have come at a worse time because it is has recently embarked on an unprecedented campaign to improve its public image.

For Wal-Mart's mounting critics, the document is proof that the company really is the world's most controversial.

It locks in its workers overnight while they stock shelves, and aggressively resists the formation of unions among its employees.

The normally reclusive company, which has preferred to maintain a bunker mentality from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, has launched several initiatives to fight its mounting critics and make it seem like a more caring place to work.

The company confounded many critics in a speech by its chief executive, Lee Scott, urging Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $US5.15 ($7.30) an hour. He said Wal-Mart's millions of customers were "struggling to get by". The company, which has more than 3300 stores in the US alone, also said it would improve its environmental record, increasing the fuel efficiency of its fleet of trucks and investing $US500 million ($709 million) yearly to cut greenhouse emissions and conserve energy.

In a third offensive, Wal-Mart said it would make improvements in an area where criticism of the company has been particularly heated: healthcare.

To counter criticism that Wal-Mart's benefits have been so poor that many of the workers - or "associates" as the company calls them - have resorted to Medicaid to pay hospital bills, it launched a new, cheaper plan. The initiative allows its 1.3 million US employees to buy into a health insurance programme for as little as $11 a month.

Yet the reality of Wal-Mart's attitude seems at odds with the positive impression the company is working hard to create.

Susan Chambers, the Wal-Mart executive who prepared the memo with the consultants McKinsey, notes that Wal-Mart's workers "are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases".

To deal with the problem, Ms Chambers suggests ways to woo younger workers and discourage older ones.

"It will be far easier to retain a healthier work force than it will be to change the behaviour in an existing one ... These plans would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart," she writes.

In an interview with the New York Times, Ms Chambers defended her ideas, saying her focus was not on slashing costs but on finding new, more flexible ways to manage benefits. She also pointed to positive perks which would be offered to motivated "associates", such as education programmes.

However, critics believe the company was revealing its true colours. Andrew Grossman, director of the advocacy group Wal-Mart Watch, who received the document anonymously, said: "This company has been selling a false image to the public. Anyone who truly wishes to understand Wal-Mart need look no further than this document."

- INDEPENDENT