Alleged Bias in Test May Cause a Shakeup at Ports.

A complaint that a racially biased test was used to screen applicants for temporary dock worker jobs at the ports may force the Pacific Maritime Association to hire up to 2,200 minority workers it had previously rejected.

At issue is an adult basic education test that candidates for casual worker jobs were asked to take in 1997 and 1998 as part of a PMA hiring and training program. One of the applicants filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial bias in the test, which was intended to determine if candidates had seventh-grade-equivalent reading and algebra skills.

According to a consent decree obtained by the Business Journal, the EEOC found merit in the claim and now wants the PMA, which represents waterfront employers in hiring dock workers, to let about 2,200 minority workers rejoin the training program and perhaps qualify for jobs.

In addition, the draft document, dated Dec. 20, calls for the PMA and International Longshore and Warehouse Union to establish a $2.8 million fund to compensate people who rejoin the program and eventually become casual workers for time missed because of the problem. Those workers also would be credited with an undetermined number of hours to apply to the total needed to become a union member.

The document doesn't say why the EEOC believes the test is racially biased. Pamela Thomason, an attorney with the EEOC in Los Angeles, said the commission does not comment on any complaints unless a lawsuit has been filed. (Consent decrees are designed to avoid such litigation).

Thomason said, however, that when an employer institutes educational requirements that have a disproportionate impact on an ethnic minority, it has to show compelling business reasons to do so.

"If you're hiring a nuclear physicist and you require a doctorate in physics, you also will exclude many minority candidates. But there are compelling reasons for this requirement," she said. "But if you, for example, require a certain level of education because you think that better educated people will stay around longer, someone may counter that people with a lot of experience will also stay around longer."

The adult education test asked basic arithmetic questions, such as "66 is 33 percent of what number?" It asked for basic spelling skills, requiring applicants to be able to spell "biology" and "biblical." It also asked for elementary problem-solving skills, asking, for example, "If Joe goes to the store with $2.50 in his pocket and he buys $1.50 worth of milk and a $.45 pack of gum, how much does he have left?"

The PMA declined to comment in detail on the case, but spokeswoman Josephine Parr denied that a settlement with the EEOC has been reached or is imminent.

Marc Coleman, an attorney who represents the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13, also said a settlement is not imminent. Coleman said the ILWU denies there was any racial discrimination in hiring workers.

Union officials said privately that the racial makeup of the workforce at ports on the West Coast reflects the communities quite well, and that they are more concerned about hiring more women workers. They also stressed the importance of the exams, given the potentially dangerous nature of the work.

If eventually approved by all parties, the decree would mean that new workers could have as much seniority as a casual who passed the test initially and has been working over the past two years. That is particularly irksome to existing workers because the number of hours that a casual has worked determines his or her chance of landing much-sought-after jobs as unionized longshoremen.

Late last month, casual workers at the Port of Los Angeles stayed away from work for one day to protest the situation, which they believe could hurt their livelihoods.

"It is simply not true that the exams are racially biased," said one casual who has been working at the ports for the past two years. "About 85 percent of the working casuals are minorities. We applied ourselves and took refresher courses to pass the exam."

Casual longshore workers are hired to handle the overflow of work in the ports during peak periods. After a labor shortage in the ports two years ago, the PMA and the ILWU agreed to process 12,000 applicants for casual positions along the West Coast, the bulk of whom are in L.A. and Long Beach.

Full-fledged union members, who get guaranteed work and often make more than $100,000 a year, are hired out of the pool of casuals.