<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-title entry-title gmail-cleanprint-title">Janitorial contractor at LAX settles lawsuit over English-only policy for workers</h1>
                                      
                                        
                                            
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  By City News Service
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                                            Posted: 
                                        <time datetime="">04/17/17, 5:12 PM PDT</time>
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                                                <time datetime="">Updated: 5 hrs ago</time>
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</p><p>A janitorial airline contractor at Los Angeles 
International Airport and more than a dozen of its employees have 
settled a case alleging their supervisor improperly prohibited them from
 speaking Spanish during work hours and breaks.</p><p>Attorneys
 for lead plaintiff Irma Espinoza and the other Gate Gourmet workers 
filed a notice of dismissal of the lawsuit last week in Los Angeles 
Superior Court and a notice of settlement in March. No terms were 
divulged.</p><p>In May 2015, the janitors sued Gate Gourmet — 
which provides cabin cleaning and restocking services to Delta Air Lines
 at LAX — accusing the company of failing to prevent the discriminatory 
policy.</p>
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</p><p>The suit alleged unlawful workplace language policy, 
harassment, failure to prevent discrimination and national origin 
discrimination.</p><p>Gate Gourmet spokeswoman Christina 
Ulosevich said at the time that the company “does not have an 
English-only rule” and communicates with employees “in multiple 
languages, and certainly in both English and Spanish in Los Angeles.”</p><p>The
 plaintiffs worked for other companies that contracted with Delta 
Airlines to clean the carrier’s cabins until Gate Gourmet began 
servicing their planes in May 2014, the suit stated.</p>
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</p><p>From the inception of Gate Gourmet’s takeover, swing 
shift manager Silvana Jahshan instituted an English-only policy, 
according to the lawsuit.</p><p>“Gate Gourmet’s language policy
 requires plaintiffs and employees who do not speak English to go 
without speaking during a work day,” according to the suit, which 
alleged Jahshan “intimidated, harassed and threatened” those plaintiffs 
who spoke Spanish in violation of the rule.</p><p>“Plaintiffs 
who only speak Spanish are too afraid to speak whatsoever due to fear of
 discrimination, harassment, humiliation and discipline,” according to 
the lawsuit.</p>
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</p><p>Gate Gourmet did not impose an English-only rule on its 
morning or night shift workers even though those employees do the same 
jobs as their colleagues on the swing shift, the suit stated.</p><p>When
 the workers raised complaints about their supervisor’s alleged 
English-only policy, Gate Gourmet’s management and human resources “did 
not take any action whatsoever” to correct the behavior, according to 
the suit.</p><p><a href="http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20170417/janitorial-contractor-at-lax-settles-lawsuit-over-english-only-policy-for-workers">http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20170417/janitorial-contractor-at-lax-settles-lawsuit-over-english-only-policy-for-workers</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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