Wisconsin: Worker disciplined for speaking Spanish at nursing home

[Harold Schiffman]

Worker disciplined for Spanish at nursing home
By ELLEN GABLER

Posted: Feb. 25, 2008
Daysi Lopez believes her first language did her in.

A nursing home employee said she was disciplined for speaking Spanish
in front of residents where she worked. The nursing home, St. John's
on the Lake, said workers shouldn't speak a language that residents
can't understand because it might make them feel uncomfortable. Lopez
knows English but often chatted in Spanish with another nursing
assistant while they worked at St. John's on the Lake, a retirement
facility in Milwaukee. She also spoke Spanish on the phone when her
mother called, asking for help making doctor's appointments. Her
mother doesn't speak English. Those conversations caused big problems
at work, Lopez says, after a St. John's supervisor demanded that Lopez
and her colleague stop speaking Spanish around patients. "She didn't
want me and my friend saying [anything] in Spanish because it was a
bother to the patients and the other employees," Lopez said.

The 40-year-old Milwaukee woman filed a federal discrimination lawsuit
against St. John's late last month. She quit her job at the nursing
home about a year ago. Rick Romano, a spokesman for St. John's, said
he could not comment on the lawsuit but described the company's
language policy.  "The basis of our policy is that people can speak
any language that they would like to privately, outside of their work
area," he said. St. John's policy might not fly with the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.

"We don't consider customer preference as any kind of justification
for any kind of discriminatory behavior," said James Ryan, a
commission spokesman. Requiring employees to speak only English
violates federal law, although there are some caveats if an employer
can show it is essential to effectively run a business or to keep
patients safe. Lopez said she always spoke English to patients because
they couldn't have understood her otherwise. The only times she spoke
Spanish was when her family called or when she and her co-worker
chatted about personal things, such as their families or what they had
for dinner. Other employees were allowed to make personal calls in
English, Lopez said.

The Spanish-speaking wasn't an issue for the first six years Lopez
worked at St. John's, she said, nor had she been disciplined. That
changed when Ann Moore became supervisor and gave Lopez and her
co-worker written warnings in September 2006 for speaking a
"non-dominant language" in front of nursing home residents, according
to a copy of the warning obtained by Public Investigator. Lopez had
been told a few times before the written warning that it was against
policy. In a letter to the state's equal rights division, an attorney
for St. John's argued that Lopez's charge should be dismissed. "It was
a matter of providing dignity and respect to the residents," the
letter states. "By speaking a language that residents do not
understand. . . a staff member may make a resident feel uncomfortable
in his or her home."

Moore told her staff that another long-term care facility in Wisconsin
had been cited by the state after employees were speaking another
language, according to the letter. The state has no such rule,
according to Stephanie Marquis, spokeswoman for the state health
department. However, she added, workers could get into trouble for
chatting with one another in any language if they ignore
patients.Lopez filed a case with Wisconsin's equal rights division,
but it was closed after the state declined to pursue it, records show.
She filed the federal suit afterward, saying she believed she would
lose her job if she kept speaking Spanish.

About two months after Lopez received the warning, she was suspended
for two days without pay. The nursing home said that Lopez refused to
follow orders when a supervisor asked her to get a resident ready for
an appointment. Lopez acknowledged that she didn't follow orders, but
only because there were previous instructions that the patient needed
the assistance of two nurses, not one. She said Moore just wanted her
out of the job.  Moore and St. John's declined to comment. Three
months later, Lopez quit and started a job at St. Luke's, where she
said she is able to speak both English and Spanish.

Georgia Pabst of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=721874

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