Posted on 07/14/2005 9:04:01 AM PDT by PissAndVinegar
Rochester's Highland Hospital faces a lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against Hispanic employees who claim they were prohibited from speaking Spanish at work.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suit in federal court Wednesday on behalf of at least five Highland Hospital employees. Each of the employees still works in the hospitals housekeeping department.
Housekeeping supervisor Janette Nunez claims her boss told her she could no longer speak Spanish at work after she asked to translate for one of her co-workers.
"He went like this on his desk and said no. You speak English in my office. You are in America," Nunez said.
Nunez says her performance reviews have gone from superior to poor since she took issue with the policy.
"I was very, very hurt because of this. I was feeling that I was treated so unfair," she said.
"That's not an indication that the hospital is concerned about patient care. It's not concerned about its business. It's concerned about bullying and harassing people who are Hispanic," said attorney J. Nelson Thomas.
Highland Hospital calls this lawsuit unfair and says it's based on one big misunderstanding. The hospital says it asked its housekeeping staff to restrict Spanish use only when around non-Spanish speaking employees.
"Our intent was not to restrict anyone from speaking Spanish, said COO Cindy Becker. It was to assure all of our employees understood and felt they were part of a team."
Becker says management received complaints that some Spanish-speaking employees would deliberately switch from English to Spanish and create an atmosphere of mistrust and misunderstanding.
The employees who are going ahead with the lawsuit dispute those claims. They want the policy changed and want money for their pain and suffering.
Janette Nunez says what she wants most is justice.
"We're looking for people to understand this is America. This is a free country."
"He went like this on his desk and said no. You speak English in my office. You are in America," Nunez said.
And the problem is???
Love your typo : ))))
Hey - don't make me sue you for trying to make me type in proper English!!
And you're smiley needs to go on a diet - she's got a quadruple chin.
(Don't be offended, I speak from experience - as you can see , I have fat fingers :)
I have seen instances where people speak in Spanish for the direct purpose of insulting English speakers. I say if in America, speak English first.
I've had people talk about me in Spanish in front of me, assuming I didn't understand the language. When they wrap it up I always say a few words in Spanish to them and smile. Ouch. They get the message. They're being rude and they got caught.
Very funny : ) Thanks for todays chuckles : ))))
Perhaps the attorney could argue his case before the judge entirely in Spanish to make his point...?
Fire her.
Not because she's hispanic. Because she's disruptive and can't follow reasonable rule that allow others to understand what is being said.
This is a free country, and the hospital is free to place reasonable restrictions on people as a condition of employment. The government has no right to interfere.
In a hospital setting one would think that a common language would be important no matter what role a person plays there. But that's just me being insensitive...
Well lets see if we can sort this out for this poor lady....
(1) She's Hispanic
(2) She lives in America
(3) She works in Rochester, New York, I believe that is in the United States...right?
(4) Well DUHHHHHHHHHHH if your in AMERICA we speak ENGLISH...if we wanted to speak Spanish we would go to a Spanish speaking country!!!!!!!
Now that should clear it up for the poor thing....(I think)
I say if in America, speak English.
Patients and their familes have enough problems, they don't need people yapping around them in a foreign language.
So how do you speak 'a metal'?
Oh, I bet you meant COBOL, not Cobalt....
You really should use a spell checker when you post - typos make people look dumb :)
My Russian speaking freinds and I frequently use Russian as a means of insulting non-Russian speakers nearby. :)
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There!
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