HARTNETT NAMED TO LABOR POST.(Main)

Byline: Gary Spencer Capitol bureau

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo on Thursday nominated Thomas F. Hartnett, director of the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, to become state labor commissioner.

Hartnett will replace Lillian Roberts, who was the highest-ranking black woman in the Cuomo administration. Roberts was pressured to resign by the administration earlier this year.

However, the number of blacks in the Cuomo Cabinet will not be changed because the governor also announced he would appoint his first assistant counsel, Elizabeth D. Moore, who is black, to succeed Hartnett.

As head of OER, Moore, 32, would act as the state's chief labor negotiator. She would be OER's first woman director since the office was established in 1969.

The nomination of Hartnett, a 41- year-old former labor relations manager for New York Telephone, is …