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<h1 class="gmail-trb_ar_hl_t">Don't adopt English-only workplace policy without clear business need</h1>
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<div><div class="gmail-trb_ar_by"><span class="gmail-trb_ar_by_nm_pm"><span class="gmail-trb_ar_by_nm_au"><span>Dan Eaton</span></span></span></div><div class="gmail-trb_ar_dateline"><time class="gmail-trb_ar_dateline_time" datetime="2018-05-28T00:00:00-0700"></time>
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<p>The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission is suing Albertsons in San Diego federal court over what the
agency calls the grocer’s “unwritten English-only policy, which
Albertsons implemented as essentially a no Spanish policy” at its Lake
Murray Boulevard store. The EEOC charges Albertsons with violating the
federal employment discrimination law, Title VII, which bars national
origin discrimination.</p><p>The lawsuit was brought on behalf
of several Hispanic employees who, according to the complaint, were
reprimanded for speaking Spanish, even on their breaks and for speaking
to Spanish-speaking customers. Albertsons allegedly instructed its
employees in a 2012 training video not to speak Spanish whenever a
non-Spanish speaking person was present.</p><p>Anna Park, a lawyer with
the EEOC’s Southern California office, said in a press release that
“[t]argeting a particular language for censorship is often synonymous
with targeting a particular national origin, which is both illegal and
highly destructive to workplace morale and productivity.”</p><p>In an
emailed response to a Washington Post reporter’s inquiry, an Albertsons
spokeswoman said “[t]he company does not have, and has never had a
policy in which such language usage is prohibited,” though she declined
to comment on this case.</p>
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</div> </aside><p>In a 1993 ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
declined to follow EEOC guidance interpreting Title VII to require an
employer to justify the need for any English-only rule. The court ruled
that it was not national origin discrimination for an employer to
require bilingual workers to follow an English-only policy – even absent
a sufficient business need for it – because the policy did not deprive
them of the privilege available to other workers to speak at work. Title
VII “does not protect the ability of workers to express their cultural
heritage in the workplace,” said the court. A worker in private
employment does not have an absolute right “to speak in the language of
their choice.”</p><p>The workers in the pending Albertsons action appear
to be bilingual, presenting a legal challenge for the EEOC, even if the
agency can show Albertsons had an English-only policy.</p><p>Unlike
Title VII, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act expressly
prohibits employers from adopting or enforcing a policy that “limits or
prohibits the use of any language” at work unless the policy is
justified by business need and employees are notified when and how they
must comply with it and the consequences for violating it.</p><p>In a
2011 unpublished ruling, the California court of appeal in Orange County
concluded that an employer did not adopt a general “policy” prohibited
by the FEHA when the employer barred specific bilingual employees from
speaking their native language at work after those employees had been
found to have used their native language to demean co-workers. The court
added that, even if such a targeted prohibition was a “policy” under
the law, it was justified by business necessity because it applied only
to those who had used their native language to offend other employees.</p>
<p>Three years later, Fresno federal judge Lawrence O’Neill
ruled against bilingual Hispanic employees who challenged an
English-only policy under Title VII. Judge O’Neill found that the
complaining employees could not show they were treated differently from a
bilingual employee who also spoke Swedish or that they had been
disciplined for speaking Spanish at work. The judge declined to decide
whether the company’s policy violated California’s FEHA because
questions of “when an employer is deemed to have adopted or enforced a
policy that restricts or prohibits the use of a language in the
workplace and when such a language is justified by a business necessity .
. . are novel issues of California law” that needed to be resolved in
state, not federal, court.</p><p>No matter how the Albertsons case is
resolved, an employer should adopt any English-only policy only narrowly
and only with a solid business justification, such as directing it to
those found to have used their fluency in a foreign language to abuse
co-workers who do not speak it.</p><p>Dan Eaton is a partner with the
San Diego law firm of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek where his practice
focuses on defending and advising employers. He also is an instructor at
the San Diego State University Fowler College of Business where he
teaches classes in business ethics and employment law. He may be reached
at <a href="mailto:eaton@scmv.com" target="_blank">eaton@scmv.com</a>. His Twitter handle is <a href="https://twitter.com/daneaton" target="_blank">@DanEatonlaw</a>.</p></div>
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<a href="mailto:?subject=Don't adopt English-only workplace policy without clear business need - The San Diego Union-Tribune&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sandiegouniontribune.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fsd-fi-eaton-20180528-story.html%23share%3Demail~story" class="gmail-trb_sc_item"><span></span></a>
<br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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