5 Harbor Staffers to Experiment With Working at Home

San Pedro — Five Los Angeles Harbor Department employees will be among 500 city workers to participate in an 18-month study on telecommuting, in which employees work at home to ease traffic and air pollution in the region.

The study, initiated by the Los Angeles Telecommunications Department, will measure the productivity and performances of the employees. They will work out of their homes one or two days a week when the telecommuting program gets under way later this month.

As part of the study, the Harbor Department will spend $35,000 to buy computers and office furniture for the five port employees’ homes. The employees include an architectural drafting technician and two clerk typists in the port’s engineering division, as well as two marine environmentalists whose job is to prepare and review environmental management reports and studies.