Ex-Sumitomo Owners Were Biased, U.S. Says

Investigators with the Labor Department have found that the former owners of Sumitomo Bank of California failed to recruit African Americans for the lending institution’s high-level jobs and discriminated against both black and Latino employees by paying them less than other workers.

Federal officials said Thursday that they believe the pay discrimination took place in some, but not all, job categories. They said the discrimination affected at most 250 African American and Latino employees. In addition, officials said the severity of the pay discrimination still has not been determined after more than 1 1/2 years of investigation.

“The case still is not concluded, and it’s still open to a lot of negotiations. At any time, the bank could come forward with evidence that could refute our findings,” said Helene Haase, the San Francisco-based regional director of the Labor Department investigatory unit known as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

On Oct. 1, Sumitomo Bank of California was acquired for by Zion Bancorp of Salt Lake City. Most of the Sumitomo offices were merged into a Zion unit now called California Bank & Trust Co.

The chairman of California Bank & Trust, Robert G. Sarver, said he had not had a chance to review the pay figures for the 1995-96 period under investigation to determine whether discrimination took place. “If we find evidence that there was discrimination, we’re going to rectify that,” he said.

Over the last month, Sarver said, California Bank & Trust has hired several minority executives at the level of senior vice president or above.