California Lottery ignores management’s harassment, bullying of employees, union says
Following years of requests that the California State Lottery investigate managers who harass, bully, and intimidate subordinates, union representatives told commissioners Thursday that the department continues to ignore longstanding management issues at several district offices.
“The HR department and some of these managers continue to slap lipstick on this same old pork chop,” said Paulina Vasquez, a lottery sales representative and union steward for SEIU Local 1000, which represents lottery employees. “Every time there’s a complaint, they quickly try to defend these bad managers.”
Vasquez said the lottery’s human resources department and other managers have tried to discredit those who come forward with concerns about inappropriate behavior of some district office leaders. She told commissioners Thursday that some issues highlighted in a 2020 report from the California Department of Justice, which investigated allegations of harassment and misconduct at the lottery department, remain unresolved.
“Overall, we do not feel as though what was said today is a representative, collective voice of our more than 1,100 employees,” said Carolyn Becker, the deputy director of public affairs and communications.
Becker said the lottery was confident in the department’s process for receiving and investigating claims about inappropriate workplace conduct.
Following comments made by several employees and union representatives at Thursday’s commission meeting, Director Harjinder Shergill-Chima said that the lottery takes all allegations of misconduct seriously but that it would be inappropriate to discuss any specific investigations regarding confidential personnel matters publicly.
“At the lottery, we investigate and respond to all allegations in an impartial manner that respects the rights of all parties involved,” said Shergill-Chima. “If anyone is found to have violated policy, appropriate action would then be taken.”
Shergill-Chima recently took over the helm of the lottery after former Director Alva Johnson resigned one year ago.
The lottery has faced scrutiny in the years following an after-work party at a Southern California piano bar that prompted department employees to send an anonymous letter and photos, detailing inappropriate behavior by lottery officials at the bar, to then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018.
In response, the Justice Department launched its investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and unprofessional behavior. Justice department attorneys were also tasked with investigating alleged disparaging treatment of employees.
Investigators found that managers at the state lottery ran afoul of a state law meant to protect public agencies’ reputations. The report found that a “sale culture” inappropriate to public service took hold at the lottery after it hired sales representatives from the private sector. Attorneys who wrote the report didn’t recommend any criminal charges.
Justice Department attorneys also recommended that the Lottery conduct diversity training to address concerns raised about a manager’s use of racial slurs and insensitive jokes.
“Training is needed to change this culture of unprofessionalism at the Lottery,” investigators wrote, in their 2020 report.
Becker admitted Thursday that the lottery had issues in the past but said that under new leadership the department is prioritizing professional behavior.
But some lottery employees said that in select district offices, the unprofessional culture that prompted an investigation by the DOJ still persists.
“The union has raised these concerns to senior management on numerous occasions to the sound of a trash compactor squashing the facts,” Frances O’Rourke, a Local 1000 steward and lottery employee told commissioners Thursday.
One of the union’s primary complaints, O’Rourke said, is an apparent lack of responsiveness by the Equal Employment Opportunity office to employee complaints. She said it has become clear that the lottery’s EEO office — which is responsible for monitoring the enforcement of California’s non-discrimination policies in the department— is acting in a pro-management capacity.
Adrian Llamas, a route sales representative in the Chatsworth district office, said in an interview that the harassment he’s faced has negatively impacted his health so much that he had to visit the hospital to seek treatment for mental distress. Llamas was not present Thursday, but has spoke during a previous commission meeting last year about the ongoing issues in his workplace.
Llamas made a number of complaints to the lottery’s HR department and the EEO office about the harassment he has claimed to endure, but said those complaints have not been thoroughly investigated.
“There’s just no hope at the lottery,” Llamas said, “They’re all working together to protect one another: management, HR, EEO, they’re all in cahoots.”
Llamas has considered leaving his job at the state, which he’s held for 12 years, but he doesn’t want to lose the benefits he’s put over a decade of his life into accruing.
“There is new leadership at Local 1000 and we are committed to protecting our workers rights and working conditions,” said Anica Walls, the new president of the state’s largest public union.
Walls told lottery commissioners that Local 1000 was planning to identify and track bad managers within the state department.
Union representatives asked the commission if the lottery was conducting exit interviews to determine the causes of some employees’ departure from the department. Union stewards added that some employees were not granted an opportunity to conduct an exit interview.
Becker said since 2012, all employees leaving the department had the chance to provide feedback in the form of an exit survey, though participation is not mandatory. She said the lottery is currently “revamping the exit interview process as part of ongoing culture and engagement initiatives.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 10:09 AM.
