Health Department Worker Harassed Over Race, Creed, Panel Finds

Los Angeles County Civil Service commissioners have ruled that a Latino office worker was harassed for racial and religious reasons in a division of the county’s Health Services Department that was virtually all black.

The commissioners have given the health department 10 days to show why it should not be ordered to stop discriminating against word processor Gloria Lozano, who alleged, among other things, that a supervisor gave her a pamphlet declaring that she could not go to Heaven because she is a Roman Catholic. The supervisor also purportedly spread olive oil on another worker’s desk to drive away demons.

The commission on Wednesday adopted the substance of the report by Hearing Officer Sara Adler, who concluded that Lozano “was subject to disparate treatment because of her race, nationality, ethnicity and, or, her religion.”

Commission Executive Officer Gene Pomeroy said a decision ordering the health department to cease such discrimination will not be final until the department has time to file objections. Charles Canales, the health department’s head Civil Service representative, said he will submit objections.

Adler found that Lozano barely avoided being laid off during a 1981 cutback despite seniority, that she was denied equal opportunity for overtime work and that she was not allowed to eat lunch at her desk, although her supervisor, Patricia Thompson, did so in order to devote her regular lunch hours to conducting office prayer meetings.

After 17 days of hearings over a one-year period, the hearing officer found that Lozano was “subjected to a religious climate which was antithetical to her beliefs” and had to wait for months for a suitable work space after finally being removed from Thompson’s supervision.

One of two black employees who testified on behalf of Lozano told of being offered a promotion if she would help Thompson “get rid of the Mexican.”

Lozano’s attorney, Rees Lloyd of the Chicano Employees Assn., which represents Mexican-Americans in county government, said a former employee told of being put through a “born-again” Christian ceremony by Thompson in the women’s lounge during work hours and that subsequently she found her desk, chair and computer covered with oil.

Lozano and others testified that the supervisor spread the oil to cleanse the worker of demons, Lloyd said.

Thompson denied the allegations.

The Civil Service commissioners declined to accept Adler’s recommendation that two health department hearing advocates, who represent the department at hearings, be censured for misconduct because of failure to relay information about a reported telephone threat received by Lozano. Rather, the commission said in a report, the advocates simply used “poor judgment.”

Lloyd, however, asserted in an interview that “the advocates of this department . . . for over a year branded Gloria Lozano as a liar and a mental case who was having delusions that she was a victim of discrimination and threats. They covered it up and buried it in a Watergate fashion.”

Lozano, who works at health department headquarters downtown, also has filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing as possible preliminary steps to a suit seeking damages.