Edison Group Says Hiring, Promotions Are Unfair to Blacks : Labor: A ‘glass ceiling’ blocking top-level promotions is cited in state, federal complaints. Utility defends its record.

A group of more than 200 African-American employees of Southern California Edison Corp. has filed formal complaints with state and federal agencies charging that the utility has been unfair in hiring and promoting blacks.

Complaining that few blacks have “broken the glass ceiling” to enter top-management ranks, Employees United for Equality is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to bar rate increases by Edison until the company is in full compliance with equal-opportunity laws.

The group has filed similar complaints asking the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Labor Department to investigate Edison’s employment practices.

Edison officials defended the Rosemead-based firm’s hiring and promotion practices. The company said 18 of its 100 highest-ranking employees are women or minorities, including one black. Of its 500 top employees, 119 are women or minorities, including eight blacks.

“We think that’s pretty good,” said Frank Quevedo, Edison’s equal-opportunity manager.

Although Edison has faced individual employee discrimination complaints over the years, the action by Employees United is the first collective complaint since a 1973 class-action lawsuit that was settled in 1978.

“The discrimination at Edison is systemic,” said Verna Garmon, the group’s chairman and an Edison attorney. “It’s like a system of apartheid in South Africa.”

The group, formed last year, is especially critical of the methods Edison uses to select “Grade 13 and above” employees--roughly the top 50 executive positions. Openings for these jobs are not posted, the group said, leaving selection up to what it called a “good-old-boy” network that excludes blacks.

Quevedo said the utility is satisfied with its executive hiring process and has no plans to change it. “This is not unique to us,” he said. “We’re not going to apologize for that process.”

Overall, Quevedo said, Edison has made progress in equal opportunity. Its top 19 executives include a white female, a black female, an Asian male and a Latino.

Still, he acknowledged that the company needs to make more strides in promoting blacks, and he said Edison’s commitment to equal opportunity remains strong.

“I really do understand these people’s frustrations, despite what they might suggest,” Quevedo said.

The Greenlining Coalition, a San Francisco-based group that has put pressure on Edison to set goals for minority contracting and top-level employment, said the firm’s efforts on equal employment issues have been strong, although it wants Edison to improve its record on promoting blacks.

“We have felt that (Edison has) operated in good faith,” said Robert Gnaizda, the organization’s general counsel.

Gnaizda said a recent study of 500 U.S. companies found only four with three or more minorities on their boards of directors. Edison’s board, he noted, has three.