[lg policy] Baltimore: Filipino nurses fired for speaking tagalog

[Harold Schiffman]

filipino nurses fired for speaking tagalog

This is absolutely outrageous... In Baltimore, four Filipina
ex-staffers of Bon Secours Hospital say they were fired from their
jobs in April, allegedly because they spoke in Tagalog during their
lunch break: 4 Pinoys lose US jobs for speaking in Tagalog. "I feel I
was harassed and discriminated against because of my national origin,"
Natano explained.
"They claimed they heard us speaking in Pilipino and that is the only
basis of the termination. It wasn't because of my functions as a
nurse. There were no negative write-ups, no warning before the
termination," she added.

Last November, Bon Secours imposed for the first time an English-only
language policy in the Emergency Room, the nurses said. Many
hospitals, especially those with foreign medical staff, implement the
rule in trauma facilities because it's critical everyone understand
each other as they respond to life-and-death situations. They were
asked to sign the hospital's "Emergency Department Expectations" that
set the length of their lunch and snack breaks; lays down when they
can take a rest; and directs that English should be the only language
spoken while the nurses are on ER duty.

I can understand a rule like this in trauma situations, where there
are obvious concerns about communication. But the Bon Secours policy
sounds way too broad, without clear guidelines to be fairly
implemented or followed without incident. So you utter a non-English
word on your snack break and you're fired? Just like that? These
employees weren't even properly informed or given documentation about
the alleged violations. What did they say? What was the context?
Nobody has any idea. The Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission
has filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission on behalf of the fired nurses.

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2010/06/filipino-nurses-fired-for-speaking.html
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