Latinos Urge Sanctions Over Hiring Bias

Citing figures showing that Latinos are still the most under-represented minority group in state Civil Service, a coalition of eight Latino organizations on Wednesday urged the Legislature to impose sanctions against top state officials who fail to carry out minority hiring goals.

Teresa Bustillos, director of employment for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, said the sanctions being sought include a 10% pay cut for uncooperative department directors and a withdrawal of their hiring authority.

“We tried to work with state government, Gov. Deukmejian and the state Personnel Board,” Bustillos told reporters at a Capitol press conference. “But all of those efforts over the last three years have resulted in 1985 with Hispanics receiving the most dismal progress in almost 10 years.”

Possibility of Suing

Bustillos and leaders of the other groups said they are considering a class-action suit if the Legislature fails to institute any reforms. But she said a suit is a last resort because of the cost and time involved.

The issue of Latino under-representation in state jobs was sparked by a 1975 report by the state’s Personnel Board showing that while other minority groups had achieved parity in state government jobs with their counterparts in the private work force, Latinos lagged far behind.

The latest figures published by the state show Latinos occupying 17.2% of California’s private sector jobs, but only 12.2% of an estimated 123,000 state government jobs. In contrast, blacks hold 6.6% of private sector jobs in California and 11.3% of the state Civil Service posts.

Late in 1983, Deukmejian met privately with representatives of 24 Latino groups and pledged to consider a stepped-up hiring program. Since that time, the number of Latino state workers has risen from 10% of the total to the current 12.2% level. The latest figures, however, show Latino hiring beginning to taper off, growing by only 0.3% last year, the smallest increase since 1977.

Deukmejian’s office declined to comment on the Latino group’s demands, but a spokesman for the state Personnel Board said the Administration’s policy of limiting the growth of the state work force is at least partly responsible for the slow progress toward parity.

During a legislative hearing Wednesday, Assemblyman Peter R. Chacon (D-San Diego), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Policy Research, agreed to carry legislation that would punish state agencies for refusing to hire Latinos. Legislators have been reluctant to pass similar bills in the past, however, and Chacon indicated that a lawsuit may be the only alternative.

“I have been here 15 years and I know government’s response to pressure unfortunately is not to the simple idea of justice,” he said.

The eight Latino groups participating in the press conference were: the California La Raza Lawyers Assn.; the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund; Cafe de California, an organization of Latino state workers; the Mexican American Correctional Assn.; the California chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn.; the Latino Police Officers’ Assn.; the Chicano Correctional Workers Assn., and the California chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.