As promised yesterday, here’s what you can do to avoid winding up on the wrong side of the law if you have to conduct RIFs or other not-so-fun downturn-related activities.

Don’t Forget to WARN. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires advance notice of a “plant closing” or “mass layoff” in certain situations. Click here for our handy WARN Cheat Sheet. Also, make sure you’re familiar with your own state’s laws. Some states have enacted WARN-type statutes and/or require advance layoff notice under unemployment regulations.

Legitimate and Nondiscriminatory. To withstand judicial scrutiny, a RIF must be based on legitimate nondiscriminatory business reasons. Make sure all RIF decision-makers can clearly articulate those reasons before you proceed. Also, the criteria used for selecting RIF participants should be as specific, concrete and consistent as possible. Multiple factors may be used, but the more subjectivity there is, the more likely it is that potentially discriminatory factors could creep in.

Severance and Release. Consider offering severance agreements in exchange for releases of claims to further reduce risk. Make sure you comply with the older worker waiver protections under the law. Check out our our ADEA Cheat Sheet for an overview.

Talk to Your Lawyer. Run the RIF plan by your legal counsel and conduct discrimination testing to make sure everything’s on solid legal footing.

Dignity and Respect. This may be the #1 factor. At all times, treat both departing and remaining employees with dignity and respect during these tough times.

One employment law area that continues to generate lots of activity and questions is reductions in force (RIFs).

Obviously, some professions were hit harder by RIFs than others. Ever wonder which jobs took the biggest hit? The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently issued statistics on the jobs that suffered the biggest losses in ’09. Here are the results, some of which might surprise you.

2009′s BIGGEST JOB LOSSES

1. Architects. Approximately 40,000 architect jobs were lost in the past year, a 17.8% drop. The good news? The BLS projects that architecture jobs will grow by 10% in the next decade.
2. Carpenters. 17% of carpenter jobs — almost 270,000 — disappeared in ’09. But there’s good news here, too: the carpentry trade is projected to grow by about 13% in the next decade.
3. Production/Assembly. Production supervisor and assembly worker jobs dropped almost 16% from their already almost-unprecedentedly-low numbers. And the bad news is expected to continue: losses in this sector are expected to continue.
4. Pilots. Pilot employment dropped more than 30% in the most recent quarter for which there is data (Q3) alone. If the economy improves, air travel should jump, which is good news for pilots.
5. Software Engineers. Perhaps the most surprising entry on the list, U.S.-based software engineers were hit hard by offshoring, experiencing a 10% decline. However, the BLS projects that this sector will grow twice as fast as the average in the next decade.
6. Mechanical Engineers. 53,000 mechanical engineer jobs were lost, but the BLS projects 6% growth in the next decade.
7. Construction.  The housing decline resulted in the loss of about a quarter of a million construction jobs. The outlook? Federal programs and tax breaks designed to increase energy-efficient upgrades are anticipated to propel 20% job growth in the next decade.
8. Tellers. Tellers faced a 12% drop from already-low numbers brought on by online banking and ATMs. The BLS projects a 6% increase in the next decade.
9. Accounting. 185,000 accounting clerk jobs were lost the past year. Increased regulation is expected to result in close to 300,000 new jobs over the next decade, more than making up for the loss.

Tomorrow, we’ll give you our patented tips for managing RIFs and other not-so-fun downturn-related activities.

Yesterday, we reported here that some law firms are paying new attorneys up to $80,000 to go away for a year. Another law firm is in the news for its approach to layoffs.

As reported here, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer — the world’s fourth largest law firm — decided to lay off 14 employees. Rather than deliver the messages themselves, the partners of the firm reportedly delegated the dirty work to HR.

The HR folks apparently weren’t too keen on delivering the message either. Rather than inform affected employees in person, they decided to give the news by phone. When employees didn’t answer, some were left voicemails telling them they had been sacked.

A spokesperson for the firm said, “It was not ideal from our perspective but we were trying to get the information out as soon as possible.” He added that the employees each received a severance payment. The amount? Approximately one-sixteenth of annual pay, according to sources.

As one employee of the firm said: “This obviously made people feel incredibly undervalued for their two years of hard work for a bunch of partners who were too gutless to deliver the news themselves.”

Yikes.

Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but a new survey projects that the recession will last fourteen months.

According to the Philadelphia Reserve’s latest Survey of Professional Forecasters, the current recession began in April and will last through June 2009.  That would make it the third-longest recession since the Great Depression.  Only the 16-month recessions of the mid-70s and early 80s were longer.

As we discussed here, employment claims are one of the few things that go up during a downturn.  It’s more important than ever that employers know and follow the law.  Here’s what you can do to stay out of legal hot water:

Don’t Forget to WARN.  The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires advance notice of a “plant closing” or “mass layoff” in certain situations.  Click here for our handy WARN Cheat Sheet.  Also, make sure you’re familiar with your own state’s laws.  Some states have enacted WARN-type statutes and/or require advance layoff notice under unemployment regulations.

If You RIF, RIF Right.  To withstand judicial scrutiny, a RIF must be based on legitimate nondiscriminatory business reasons.  Make sure all RIF decision-makers can clearly articulate those reasons before you proceed.  Also, the criteria used for selecting RIF participants should be as specific, concrete and consistent as possible.  Multiple factors may be used, but the more subjectivity there is, the more likely it is that potentially discriminatory factors could creep in.

Severance and Release.  Consider offering severance agreements in exchange for releases of claims to further reduce risk.  Make sure you comply with the older worker waiver protections under the law.  Check out our our ADEA Cheat Sheet for an overview.

Be Careful What You Write.  Be very, very, very careful about what you put in writing.  If you’re sued, the plaintiff’s attorney will undoubtedly demand every single e-mail, memo, note, jotting and scribble that’s remotely related to your process.

Talk to Your Lawyer.  Run the RIF plan by your legal counsel and conduct discrimination testing to make sure everything’s on solid legal footing.  Come up with a plan to protect as many documents as possible under the attorney-client privilege.

Click here for more tips.  Hope this helps.

Based on questions I’m receiving here on the Blawg and in my recent presentations, it’s clear that one employment law issue is suddenly (and not unexpectedly) eclipsing all others:  how to manage in a downturn.

Yesterday, I gave you my suggestions for weathering the storm here.  Today, I thought I’d scour the web to give you some additional resources.  Here’s the best of what I found . . .

• HRSpecialist.com:  Upside of the Downturn
• Bnet.com:  How to Manage Your Team in a Downturn
• KnowHR.com:  Top 10 Things HR Needs to Do in an Econcomic Downturn
• Inc.com:  Managing Uncertainty in an Economic Downturn
• Legalworkplace.com:  Managing During an Economic Downturn

Hope you find these helpful.  The #1 message:  Don’t lose hope!