Duncan Appointed to Top State Post

John C. Duncan, who had been the acting director of the state Department of Industrial Relations since June, was officially appointed to head the agency by Gov. Pete Wilson. Duncan’s appointment to the $115,000-a-year job was delayed until this month, sources said, so that he could serve in the final year of the Wilson administration without having to win Senate approval. (Gubernatorial appointees can serve for a year pending such approval.) As head of the Department of Industrial Relations, Duncan oversees the California labor commissioner’s office; the division of workers’ compensation; and Cal/OSHA, which supervises workplace safety. Duncan, 40, joined the department in 1991.