It can be frustrating for an English-speaking customer to deal with an employee who struggles with the language. However, companies generally see the value in having bilingual employees on-staff to address the many consumers who haven’t mastered English. But what does any of that have to do with conversations between employees in the break room or on the sales floor? A lot of people are asking that question in response to conservative lawmakers’ proposed ban of foreign languages in the workplace.
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
“You can’t stop people from speaking Spanish on their lunch hour or in the bathroom or if their job requires it,” Ricardo Meza, regional counsel with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Chicago, told us. “They want to prevent people from speaking any language other than English at all.”
If you do, you could be fired.
This is what happened to two Hispanic employees of a Salvation Army thrift store in Massachusetts. As they sorted clothes, the women spoke Spanish, as they always had for the last five years. Speaking English was hardly a business necessity. Yet their employer — the charity known for its tireless care of the poor and homeless — had coldly instituted an English-only mandate. They gave employees a year to learn English, and when the sorting women violated it, they canned them. So the EEOC filed suit against the Salvation Army.
Perhaps lawmakers hope this will limit the number of illegal immigrant workers in the US now that the “No Match” regulation has been restrained — or take away the advantage bilingual job candidates have over English-only applicants in areas heavily populated by immigrants. Regardless, such a ruling is insulting to workers who choose to honor their culture and heritage when appropriate by conversing with peers in their native tongues.
