Third U-Cal DOE Lab Discrimination Claim

Tuesday, August 22, 2000

The University of California (UC) now faces its third personnel management crisis this year at the national laboratories it manages for the Department of Energy (DOE). CUE, the Coalition of University Employees, has filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging employment discrimination at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Charges of serious gender, age, and ethnic discrimination at LBNL follow upon previous EEOC charges of racial profiling at Los Alamos National Lab, and of sex discrimination and harassment of whistle-blowers at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

LBNL recently paid millions of dollars in settlement to minority employees who were wrongfully subjected to involuntary genetic testing by the Laboratory. "Given the Lab's history of outrageous discriminatory behavior," said Mark Covington, a CUE negotiator and recipient of the settlement, "the new charges are not surprising. They grow out of a culture of discrimination that is pervasive here."

Citing systematic pay differentials based on discrimination on the basis of race, gender and age, CUE bases its complaint on statistics provided by the University of California, which show that 75% of employees at LBNL's lowest clerical level are ethnic minorities; at the highest level, ethnic minorities comprise only 28% of employees.

The clerical pay system at LBNL differs from that used for other federal UC-managed laboratories; it differs from that used for other clericals at UC; and it even differs from the pay structure used for non-clerical staff at LBNL. For these employees, pay structures are based on a combination of cost-of-living, merit, and seniority components, but LBNL management repeatedly denies CUE's request that clerical salaries be based on similar standards.

UC at LBNL also discriminates against clerical employees based on their age, with employees kept in the same job classifications for years with few raises and little opportunity for advancement. While no consideration is given for years of service at the laboratory, new hires are routinely offered starting salaries between $1.50 and $3.00 an hour higher than the wages of senior lab employees in the same job categories.

CUE is the union that represents 18,000 clericals employed by the University of California; this figure includes 230 employees at LBNL. LBNL is a Department of Energy (DOE) facility operated by UC. Although CUE has been involved in contract negotiations with UC for two years now, the University refuses to discuss discriminatory patterns of compensation and promotions at LBNL.