PG&E; Wins Federal Affirmative Action Award : Workplace: The utility is honored by the Labor Department. Innovative training and community programs are cited.

WASHINGTON —  Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Monday received the government’s top honor for providing job opportunities for women and minorities, the Labor Department’s Opportunity 2000 award.

PG&E;’s “innovative programs . . . serve as a wake-up call to other businesses, pointing out that they may miss the boat, that the next fair-haired boy of their organization just might be a woman,” said Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole.

The award was created last year to honor companies for their work in affirmative action and equal opportunity programs.

PG&E; has spent more than $1.3 million this year on various educational and employee programs.

President George A. Maneatis said the company’s programs “reflect a strong, personal commitment by PG&E;’s senior management and its employees to affirmative action and equal employment opportunity.”

Women and minorities will account for 85% of the new entrants into the work force in PG&E;’s service area in Northern and Central California by the year 2000, Maneatis said. “We want to get ahead of that wave with outreach programs . . . to target women and minorities” to join the company and move up in the ranks, he said. Just over 40% of the company’s employees are women or members of minorities.

PG&E; serves “one of the nation’s most culturally diverse states--California,” Maneatis noted. “We are convinced that this investment in equal opportunity pays high dividends in the health and vitality of the communities we serve,” he said.

PG&E; has more than 50 programs related to equal opportunity efforts. They span three categories: youth education, attention to minority communities and encouragement for current employees.

The educational programs include college scholarships in mathematics and technical fields for minority students; an achievement camp for Hispanic elementary students from Fresno; a summer internship program for female and minority engineering students; a tutoring program for minority youth in East Oakland, and financial support for a special program preparing minority high school students to major in mathematics in college.

The community activities include a job fair for handicapped persons in San Francisco, a training program for low-income Hispanic immigrants and an Asian upward mobility conference.

Within the company, special programs are designed to encourage the careers of women and minority workers. Activities include a blacks-in-management forum, a conference for women in non-traditional jobs and a conference on women’s career strategies.

The company has an Employee Assn. round table “designed to increase awareness of issues faced by groups of PG&E; employees that represent groups that have been historically discriminated against,” according to the Labor Department’s report on the award to PG&E.; The company’s top personnel official meets regularly with officers from the black, Chinese, Filipino, Hispanic, lesbian and gay associations, and with the Women’s Network, according to the Labor Department report.

PG&E; does not have specific employment or promotion quotas for women and minorities, according to Maneatis. “We want women and minorities to occupy a significant portion of positions” at all levels, he said. “That can’t happen by simply saying we expect it. You need to provide push and help to get there.”

The Labor Department said 10,687 of PG&E;’s 26,481 workers are women or minority members. Of the 1,554 middle and upper management jobs, they hold 313, or 20.1%, and of the 362 top management jobs, they hold 57, or 15.7%.