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 hospital’s 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."
The admins fixed my sopeak, so :p
'And the problem is???'
Not. I'm sure any American working in any foreign country would be encouraged/required to use the language of the country in the workplace. Simple courtesy. To speak English in a business environment among non-English speakers would be an obvious attempt to exclude.
Well, here's this year's English-only lawsuit.
I am fluent in Profanity, yet my employer insists that I speak regular English. Can I sue too?
Oh gosh, that picture reminded me of once using Brylcreem to brush my teeth. There is nothing grosser in the world than a mouth full of greasy Brylcreem!!! ICK!
susie
Is goggle a new search engine? These nested typos within typo corrections are getting silly ;)
sopeak english? good thing they didnt have to type it eh what?
Of course, we don't go down there these days; somewhat dangerous with all the flying lead.
These old Republicans here that believe in censoring our discussions about illegal Mexicans, hear me now. Fast forward yourselves 30 - 40 years ahead, sick, and in a nursing home run by Mexicans. Every day of your life you are going to have to plead that you were always for open borders, it was old swampfox98 over there who wasn't. Can you say this, all together now, " Give the morpine drip to old swampfox98, sweet Nurse Mexicali Ratchett".
I once did that; it was early, I was hung over, and wasn't paying attention; but that woke me up quick.
I heard a comedian say that he once confused Preparation H with his denture adhesive, and while he was glad his teeth didn't itch, he had a really tight little walk.
We can relate Janette...
Immigrants from all over the world have come to America and learned our language. Why does Mexico have a problem with that? Why the arrogance? They remind me of spoiled children who have been given everything, yet they cry "it's not enough"...sickening.
That's fun--you should also speak the educated, upper-class Spanish that makes the pidgins that are generally spoken sound crude and uncouth in contrast.
For the life of me I don't understand that. If I don't understand the words how do I know I have been insulted?
You're not supposed to. It's simply fat easier to talk about 'that freaking moron over there acting like a goat' if it doesn't attract the attention of said goat.
Give our politicans time. They'll turn us into one within the next couple of decades.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
My son, who speaks and understand spanish, was in the supermarket. He was near the dairy case and overheard the following conversation in spanish between an hispanic woman and man . The woman said: *Why did you pick out the cheap cheese? Put it back and get the most expensive brand. The stupid Americans are paying for it.*
He didn't say anything to them but watched them pick out the most expensive articles on the shelves
I don't know what federal or state program these people were abusing, but it must have been a very good one for them.
lolol...isn't that the truth...lolol
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