Business Leaders End Effort for Job Bias Compromise : Civil rights: Coalition of executives sought to end differences on Democrats’ bill. The White House is accused of thwarting the negotiations.

A coalition of leading U.S. corporations, under criticism from White House officials, is pulling out of negotiations with civil rights leaders on a Democratic-sponsored civil rights bill dealing with job discrimination, American Telephone & Telegraph Chairman Robert Allen announced Friday.

Allen, who initiated the negotiations last December on behalf of the Business Roundtable, a group of more than 200 leading corporations, cited lack of support from politicians as the reason for halting the talks on the apparent verge of a compromise.

“The political process in Washington is giving signals that they don’t want us involved,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s clear that a lot of people want to sabotage the process that we started.”

As head of the Business Roundtable’s human relations task force, Allen unilaterally reversed a unanimous vote made two weeks ago by 65 Roundtable chief executive officers to continue the negotiations. He said business will remain outside of the talks “unless we are invited back into the process.”

The Democrats this year have reintroduced a bill that passed Congress last year but was vetoed by President Bush. An attempt to override his veto failed by one vote. The bill would reverse six recent Supreme Court rulings restricting job discrimination suits and broaden the availability of monetary damages for victims of intentional job discrimination.

The Administration has introduced its own competing bill, opposed by civil rights groups because it would retain elements of the Supreme Court rulings and provide only limited monetary damages.

The White House claims that if the Democratic version is adopted, employers would be forced to hire and promote fixed numbers of women and minorities in order to avoid lawsuits.

The Business Roundtable accepted an invitation from the civil rights groups to negotiate because a compromise would be an image booster and reduce tensions with employee groups, one Roundtable official said. The negotiations were designed to present key congressional leaders with an agreement acceptable to both constituent groups.

In dozens of meetings and conference calls over the past four months, negotiators agreed on language they said resolved the “quota” issue. The language sets forth the standard that businesses can use to defend themselves in suits against employment practices that while not intentionally biased, have a discriminatory impact.

The negotiators were hopeful that they could soon agree on the availability of monetary damages, which is the paramount issue for many business groups, though not for the White House.

Word of Allen’s announcement spread like wildfire Friday and prompted frantic phone calls among civil rights activists, business executives and members of Congress. Shocked civil rights leaders blamed the Bush Administration for thwarting the negotiations.

“I am deeply disappointed that AT&T; relented to White House pressure,” said Wade Henderson, head of the NAACP’s Washington bureau and one of the negotiators. “These were historic discussions to resolve some major differences between us and business leaders. I’m disturbed that AT&T; lacks the courage to proceed.”

Pressure on Allen to abandon the talks came from several quarters. Lobbyists for other business organizations, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and White House counsel C. Boyden Gray have all been active in urging Roundtable executives to support Bush’s bill.

Allen said Friday morning he had received no expressions of political support for the negotiations. Gerald Lowrie, an AT&T; senior vice president, said, “All we have is evidence of those who want us out, not those who want us in.”

Friday afternoon, leading congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) telephoned Allen in hopes of changing his mind.

Allen said he was “pleased with the interest,” a spokesman said.

AT&T; officials suggested that one factor in Allen’s decision was a critical column in Friday’s Wall Street Journal about his efforts on the civil rights measure.

Allen called the article a “character assassination,” adding, it “goes beyond the normal boundaries.”