County Accused of Bias Against Its Minority Workers

One of the nation’s largest labor unions disclosed Friday that it will file federal charges Monday accusing Los Angeles County of engaging in discrimination against its nearly 40,000 female, black and Latino employees.

Three affiliates of the Service Employees International Union--Locals 434, 535 and 660--will file the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. They will charge that the county practices sex- and race-based discrimination in wages, job assignments, promotional opportunities and other employment practices.

“It is one of the largest such legal actions ever taken, and it is ground-breaking because it covers race as well as sex,” John Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, said in a prepared statement.

‘Completely Without Merit’

Edward Watson, chief of employees relations and compensation for the county, said he could not respond in detail to any of the union’s charges because he had not seen the complaint.

“On its face, it would seem to be completely without merit,” Watson said. “We do not discriminate in employment in any way in Los Angeles County.”

But Winn Newman, a Washington attorney who plans to file the complaint, said there is extensive evidence of discrimination by the county.

“Women and minorities are initially hired and typically assigned to lower-paying jobs even though they fully meet the requirements established by the county for the higher-paying jobs dominated by white men,” Newman said in a memo to be filed in conjunction with the charges. “Women and minority workers have also been treated unfairly in the county’s transfer and promotional system, thereby perpetuating and exacerbating the county’s segregated hiring and initial assignment practices.”

He also charged that the county undercompensates female- and minority-dominated job classifications for the work that they actually perform, relative to white male-dominated classifications involving equivalent or less skill, effort and responsibility.

The lawyer, who represented Washington state employees in their landmark comparable-worth case in 1983, said a union study of Los Angeles County employment practices showed that, on the average, women and minorities are paid $6,000 to $10,000 less a year than white males.

White Men’s Pay Cited

“This means that white men earn 35% more than white women, black men and Hispanic men, and a full 60% more than black and Hispanic women,” Newman said. “This is a women’s issue, but it’s also a civil rights issue.”

According to the union study, only a third of minority employees are paid more than $17,000 a year, but nearly three-fourths of the white employees are paid more than $17,000.

Newman said the union will prove that the wage disparities are a direct result of the county’s discriminatory hiring, promotion and wage policies in violation of federal law.

Los Angeles County has about 70,000 employees, virtually all of whom are covered by collective bargaining agreements that expire Aug. 31. Phil Giarrizzo, general manager of Service Employees Union Local 660, which represents about 40,000 county workers, said the union has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to get the county to do a study to identify wage discrimination in its work force. He said the county’s hiring, wage and promotion practices will be an issue in labor negotiations due to start next month.

“We’re hoping this can be resolved in bargaining,” Giarrizzo said. “We’d rather negotiate than litigate,” he said.