Work Force Diversity : Bias: It’s Still a Fact of Business Life : Despite All the Consciousness-Raising, Violations Are Commonplace, Equal Employment Investigators Say

A black male employee was under frequent attack by his white supervisor at work. He had been pushed, shoved and verbally thrashed. Many people at the company knew about it and did little to stop it.

Even when a black female investigator from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission visited the company, a prominent Southern California firm that government officials say must remain anonymous because the case is still under investigation, senior managers were openly hostile.

But perhaps the most shocking aspect of the case is how commonplace it is considered by EEOC investigators. Despite a purportedly raised consciousness about the importance of breaking down old prejudices and developing a diverse work force, bias against women and minorities remains a fact of life in the office and on the factory floor.

“We are finding gross sexual and racial and national-origin harassment,” said Dorothy J. Porter, who supervises the Los Angeles EEOC office. “We think we’re dealing with a more sensitive and informed community now, but we still find some pretty extreme and repulsive things happening that are in complete violation of the law.”

According to diversity consultants and employment lawyers, many employers remain uncertain, ignorant or outright bigoted when it comes to hiring and promoting women, minorities and other workers who do not fit “the white male mold.”

How is this uncertainty, ignorance and bigotry manifested? Here are some of the most common offenses employers commit, according to the lawyers and experts who make a living prosecuting the excesses or defending the accused.

* Sexual harassment. Attorney Paul Grossman, general counsel for the California Employment Law Council, a group of 65 of the largest employers in the state, said there is a flood of sexual harassment cases in the courts and that “a high percentage have some merit.” Employers are still learning that they can be held liable for harassment even if top management had no idea it was going on.

At one local company, men had been exchanging a joke whose punch line involved grabbing each other’s crotches. Then a mid-level male supervisor told it to a female employee. She sued and won a six-figure award, said Lester G. Ostrov, her lawyer.

* Inquiring about an applicant’s disability. Porter said many employers don’t know that under the Americans With Disabilities Act, which went into effect in July, 1992, they may not ask if a potential employee has a disability. They may ask only whether the applicant can perform the “essential functions” of the job.

The key, said Porter, is for employers to refrain from prejudging what someone with a disability can do. With reasonable accommodations, she said--also required under the law--someone without hands, for instance, can still be a computer programmer. Someone with a psychiatric problem could control it with medication and prove to be an outstanding employee.

Trilce Delgado, a Los Angeles diversity consultant, said she finds many employers trying to sneak around proper conduct by telling job applicants, “I know I’m not supposed to ask this, but . . . “

* Relying on stereotypes and assumptions. Ann M. Morrison, a Del Mar, Calif.-based consultant and author of several books on diversity in the workplace, said employers can unwittingly hold women back by assuming they will not make the family sacrifices necessary for advancement, Morrison said. In one case, she said, the president of a school in the East was evaluating candidates for a job in California.

“The name of a highly qualified woman came up and he dismissed it, saying: ‘She wouldn’t take it. Her husband has his business here,’ ” Morrison recalled.

“I think he was well-intended; he didn’t want to create trouble in her family by bringing it up. But the thing is, she was never offered that job.”

* Seeing difference as a deficiency. Morrison said employers are slow to value experience from outside the mainstream as equally valuable.

In one company, she said, two managers were talking about a talented black professional who had just been hired. One asked where he went to school and the other said Howard University.

“And the first guy says, ‘Gosh, he’s so bright. Why did he go to a black school?’ The assumption is that since it’s predominantly black, it’s inferior.”

* Prejudice based on appearance. Lewis Maltby, director of the workplace rights office of the national American Civil Liberties Union in New York, said the workplace has yet to accept people whose appearance departs from the mainstream, which denies job success to many non-traditional employees.

“God forbid you should walk in wearing cornrows,” he said. “The employer will think you’re some sort of Rastafarian.”

On a list of the most common unfair hiring practices, Maltby said, discrimination against over weight people is “at the top, and there isn’t even a close second.”

*

Ignorance and confusion also hamper progress. Many employers do not know, for instance, that they may not ask job applicants about their plans to have a family, child care arrangements or other things pertaining to gender. They may not ask an applicant’s national origin (they may ask what languages he or she speaks or writes).

They may not ask about religion (but may outline what hours and days he or she will be asked to work).

Ostrov, the employment lawyer, also said many employers are confused about these legal guidelines. For instance, he said, it’s hard to know where affirmative action crosses the line into reverse discrimination.

“It is absolutely not clear what employers can and can’t do,” he said. “Everything depends on the peculiar facts of each situation. The courts have said affirmative action is OK, reverse discrimination isn’t. Where one ends and the other begins is a very gray area.”