County Accused of Anti-Latino Job Bias : Equality: Federal agency singles out hiring and promotion practices at two hospitals.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has accused Los Angeles County of discriminating against Latinos in hiring and promoting employees in the county’s huge public hospital system, according to a confidential report obtained Tuesday by The Times.

The report follows a three-year federal investigation and concludes that there is “reasonable cause to believe that the (county Department of Health Services) has engaged in unlawful employment practices.”

It singles out County-USC and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew medical centers for failing to hire and promote Latinos “on a basis equal to other ethnic or racial groups.”

The Health Services Department, the county’s largest agency with 22,000 workers, is about 22% Latino, compared to the county’s estimated 37% Latino population.

County officials acknowledge that Latinos are under-represented, but deny that it is the result of discrimination.

A private meeting between county and federal officials has been set for next month to discuss possible remedies. If no agreement can be reached, a Justice Department official said the county could face a federal lawsuit to force the hiring and promotion of more Latinos.

The report comes as the county appeals a historic federal court ruling that the Board of Supervisors intentionally discriminated against Latinos by drawing district boundaries in a way that diluted their political influence. The court ruling in June was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups.

The federal government began investigating county health facilities in 1987 in response to complaints from Latino employees at the medical centers.

The Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Assn. has long maintained that there are not enough Latinos employees with the bilingual skills and cultural sensitivity to treat the many Latino patients who use the county’s health facilities.

Latino community activists and political leaders applauded the federal report.

“We are delighted with the finding,” said Raul Nunez, president of the Chicano Employees Assn. “We were convinced that discrimination existed in this county.”

Rep. Esteban Torres (D-La Puente), a potential candidate for the Board of Supervisors, said the report reinforces the voting rights case against the county and the need for a Latino supervisor to look out for Latino interests.

Federal officials declined comment on the report.

The 10-page report found “significant disparities” between the hiring and promoting of Latinos at County-USC and King medical centers compared to nearby private medical facilities.

For example, Latinos accounted for 4% of managers at King, compared to 11% at the nearby private facilities. In contrast, blacks accounted for 74% of the managers at King, which serves heavily black South-Central Los Angeles, compared to 9% at the private facilities.

The report said that 12% of clerical workers at King were Latinos, compared to 35% at the private facilities. Blacks accounted for 82% of the clerical workers at King.

“These comparisons demonstrate that other employers, in the same area and performing the same function as (the county), employed a substantially greater number of Hispanics,” the report said.

“The under-representation of Hispanics at (King Medical Center) does not occur by chance,” the report said. “Absent any other explanations, respondent would be expected to employ Hispanics and blacks in numbers that more or less approximate their availability in the relevant labor market.”

The commission also accused the county of violating a section of the Civil Rights Act requiring employers to keep employment records. The report alleges that the county’s “destruction of data subverted . . . the investigation.”

Had the county produced employment records requested by the commission, the report said, “those documents would show that Hispanics applied for and/or were qualified to be hired and promoted . . . but were not selected.”

Health Services Department officials could not be reached for comment. Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, and Robert Arias, affirmative action compliance officer, said the under-representation of Latinos was not the result of any discrimination.

“We have a proactive attitude and a commitment to make things right,” Arias said.

He said Latinos remain under-represented in the county work force because budget cuts have slowed the hiring of new employees. But he insisted that the county has aggressively sought to hire and promote more Latinos, including conducting job fairs in the Latino community and tying merit raises for department heads to progress in affirmative action.

The report also cited a recent study by the county that called for the hiring of more Latinos at King Medical Center.

The county study, the commission noted, concluded that “Hispanics are relegated to semi-skilled jobs and are virtually excluded from critical public contact positions, even though there is an availability of Hispanics for most positions.”

The commission also found “significant disparities” in the promotion of Latinos at County-USC. There, Latinos accounted for 14% of registered nurses but occupied only 4% of nursing supervisor positions, the report noted. In contrast, blacks represented 20% of the nurses but 29% of the supervisors, while whites accounted for 40% of the nurses and 46% of the supervisors.