Bonuses and Discrimination?

[lynette]

I am the HR Mgr of a small gov't contractor located in NY. Bonuses were paid to some exempt employees and not others. There was also a list compiked for possible future bonus recipients. When I asked for the selection criteria for both lists, I was told that they were discretionary.
Is it true that discretionary bonuses can be dispersed without concern for inadvertent discrimination? Any guidance would be greately appreciated.

 

[MSATTORNEY]

IF THEY ARE PERFORMANCE BONUSES, THEN THEY ARE NOT DISCRIMINATORY. OR IF ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS got bonuses. To be discriminatory, you would need to find 2 people doing the same job, for the same time, on an equal basis, one of whom got a bonus and the other did not.

 

[lynette]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MSATTORNEY:
IF THEY ARE PERFORMANCE BONUSES, THEN THEY ARE NOT DISCRIMINATORY. OR IF ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS got bonuses. To be discriminatory, you would need to find 2 people doing the same job, for the same time, on an equal basis, one of whom got a bonus and the other did not.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thank you for your reply. Some additional information. They were not performance based.
Exempt total count &gt; Men = 33 Woman = 4
Out of 4 exempt woman - 1 was chosen to be on both lists.
Out of 33 men - 11 were chosen to receive bonuses, while 19 were chosen for potential future bonuses.
In addition:
15 exempt employees have 10 or more years service time. (Breakdown = Men 13 Woman 2)Of those 15 - 10 received bonuses (all men), the 5 who didn't were &gt; 3 men and 2 woman.
Of those chosen overall I cannot come up with a criteria that would fit them all and the numbers seem off balance. As the HR Mgr and Affirmative Action Officer I feel uncomfortable with the statistics. Am I being silly?
Thanks,
Lynette