There's been a bit of a furore in the press in the States over the contents of an internal memo which was issued to Wal-Mart's board of directors. You are probably aware that medical treatment in the US isn't provided for free like it is (or like it's supposed to be) over here. Apparently, one of the perks you get if you work for Wal-Mart is a health benefits package. Unfortunately, however, some of the staff have been getting ill and have actually been using the benefits package, and this is all getting a bit expensive for the company. What's really troubling the directors is that it's the least healthy - and, therefore, the most potentially expensive - members of staff who are most appreciative of the benefits package and who are therefore interested in long-term careers with the company.

The solution? Attract a healthier workforce. How? Well, one of the suggestions is to "design all jobs to include some physical activity". This, they reckon, would "dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart".

There are many issues here which concern me, but I'll stick to two.

Firstly, although I'm well aware that a great many disabled people are perfectly fit and healthy and never need to take time off work for reasons relating to their impairments, I'm not one of them. I know that sickness absence is costly to employers and I agree that everything possible should be done to minimise it. But employers need to look at just what proportion of employees' illness is linked to the working practices which are imposed on them. Not just make a unilateral decision to ditch people with health problems.

Secondly, designing all the jobs to include some physical activity isn't just going to dissuade unhealthy people from applying to work at Wal-Mart. It's also going to discriminate against disabled applicants who, for whatever reason, can't go and collect all the vagrant shopping trolleys which lurk in the farthest reaches of the car park.

For an amusing spoof application form for a job at the wonderful Wal-Mart, look no further than the New York Daily News.

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