Arizona Drive-In Reinstates English-On-The-Job Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Arizona Drive-In Reinstates English-On-The-Job Policy



    ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ProEnglish, the
nation's leading advocate for official English, today praised the
reinstatement of an English-on-the-job policy by the owners of RD's
Drive-In Restaurant in Page, Arizona, following a 5-year legal battle.
ProEnglish executive director K.C. McAlpin hailed the reinstatement
yesterday as "a victory for small business owners everywhere who want
to maintain a safe, non-threatening work environment for their
employees with common sense policies on language in the workplace."

    The legal battle began in 2002 when the Phoenix office of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit against RD's
owners, Richard and Shauna Kidman, charging them with "national
origins"
discrimination against their Navajo-speaking employees for
implementing an English-on-the-job policy. McAlpin said the Kidmans
had felt compelled to put their English policy in place after getting
employee complaints of
sexual harassment and vulgar words being used in Navajo by some of
their (bilingual) Navajo-speaking employees that had created a very
threatening and hostile work environment for their all-Navajo
workforce.     The EEOC lawsuit demanded $200,000 in punitive damages
as well as back pay for four RD's employees who left their jobs after
the English policy was announced. ProEnglish became involved in the
case when it stepped in to
help the Kidmans pay their attorney's fees.

    The case bogged down in legal wrangling after U.S. District Judge
Steven McNamee ruled the Kidmans had agreed to rescind their policy
during settlement negotiations with the EEOC. The Kidmans strongly
disputed the
ruling and appealed to the 9th Circuit  Court of Appeals. But a court
panel turned them down in a 2-1 decision announced this September.
The Kidmans then rescinded their original policy and adopted an
employment policy handbook that incorporates a revised
English-on-the-job policy. McAlpin said, "RD's new employment policy
provisions dealing with language in the workplace are completely legal
and can serve as a model for
other business owners who face similar problems over language."

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-15-2007/0004706513&EDATE=


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