Posted on 07/01/2014 12:18:26 PM PDT by PoloSec
The United States government is actually suing a private American business for discriminating against Hispanic and Asian employees because they don’t speak English on the job.
It involves a Green Bay Wisconsin metal and plastic manufacturer that fired a group of Hmong and Hispanic workers over their English skills, “even though those skills were not needed to perform their jobs,” according to the feds. More importantly, forcing employees to speak English in the U.S. violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, says the Obama administration.
Here’s the twisted explanation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws; the Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on national origin, which includes the linguistic characteristics of a national origin group. Therefore, according to this reasoning, foreigners have the right to speak their native language even during work hours at an American company that requires English.
Requirements of English fluency and so-called English only rules are often implemented to make what is really discrimination appear acceptable, says the government attorney handling this case. “But superficial appearances are not fooling anyone,” he assures. “When speaking English fluently is not, in fact, required for the safe and effective performance of a job, nor for the successful operation of the employer’s business, requiring employees to be fluent in English usually constitutes employment discrimination on the basis of national origin — and thus violates federal law.”
Under President Obama the EEOC has taken a number of unprecedented actions to protect foreigners in the workplace, including illegal immigrants. In 2009 the agency issued a controversial order making a workplace English rule illegal. The directive came after the EEOC bullied a national healthcare firm to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a discrimination lawsuit in which the government alleged that Hispanic workers were punished for speaking Spanish.
The agency has been on a roll ever since, taking legal action against businesses across the country accusing them of everything from discriminating against minorities for running criminal background and credit checks to discriminating against Muslims for not allowing hijabs on the job. The criminal background and credit checks disproportionately exclude blacks from hire, according to EEOC lawsuits against several companies. Businesses that forbid Muslim women from wearing a hijab at work violate religious rights guaranteed under the nation’s civil rights laws even when all head coverings are banned for all employees, the EEOC asserts
Last fall an Obama-appointed federal judge handed the administration a major victory, ruling that a Muslim woman’s civil rights were indeed violated by an American clothing retailer that didn’t allow her to wear the head scarf as required by her religion. The EEOC had filed the lawsuit against retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch, accusing it of religious discrimination for firing 19-year-old Umme-Hani Khan for wearing a hijab at a northern California store. The company, which focuses on hip casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22, has a policy against head covers of any kind for its employees.
Isn’t there a language requirement to become a citizen??
Obama: “We have no corruption..”
There are certain jobs around here (poultry processing) where they won’t hire whites and you MUST speak Spanish. Maybe I should sue one them places IF this is the law.
>I sn’t there a language requirement to become a citizen??
If they’re working the drive-thru they damn better make they understand English. Same goes for pharmacy employees...
EEOC- in 1978 a SF BAY AREA company, a Federal contractor, was sued by an American woman because her Q/A boss was trying to force her and one other American citizen to learn to speak Spanish because only two of the Q/A Latinos could speak English and the third was a non-US citizen but a Mexican citizen. The Company lost that lawsuit by actions of the EEOC.
PRECEDENT>
Is there any other country on the face of this earth that doesn’t require its citizens to speak their native language? This PC sh** has to stop! Maybe business need to stop hiring trouble makers.
Stupidest rule ever.
If the worker cannot understand the instructions of his English only speaking boss then the worker should be let go.
15 years ago my boss hired a non-English speaking engineer. The deal was that he had a target salary and he would receive it when he was fluent in English. He started off at a little above minimum wage and would be evaluated quarterly on his proficiency in English. In 6 months, he spoke like he’s been born here. He also got to his target salary.
Nothing like money as an incentive to learn English.
He was Russian.
""Crime is contagious.
If the government becomes a law breaker,
it breeds contempt for the law." "
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Just give them direction in English, and fire them for insubordination when they don’t comply.
It’s ok democrats don’t speak English any way.
Never mind the politics, in a blue-collar environment being able to communicate is a safety issue.
Where’s Jules Winnfield when you need him?
Canada used to be like that, but we’ve been fixing that. You now have to speak at least one of our languages to become a citizen. The days of the test being available in 50+ languages are over.
I’ve never been able to understand why these companies hire these kind of people in the first place. I’ve been involved in hiring workers for 35 years at various companies and have always been able to get the person that I wanted. With a bit of due diligence such as background checks, calling references, word of mouth and some intuition you can weed out the undesirables before you get to the interview process. You NEVER want to publically say that you don’t want certain types of folks. Those folks just get a nice letter that says that they didn’t make the cut for an interview and thanks for your interest.
Once you file the application, the procedures take up to one year to complete, and perhaps even longer. Toward the end of the process you will get tested on your knowledge of Mexico in a “multiple choice” type examination consisting of some fifteen questions. It’s not hard, but you will need to have a basic grasp of the Spanish language to pass it.
Just give them direction in English, ...”
Been several stories recently about problems in the building trade where installation instructions were written only in English resulting in windows installed incorrectly, among other things.
We have had several head-on collisions on freeways in Houston caused by people going wrong direction. Most of them involved intoxicated drivers but wonder how many of the millions of illegals in our area can actually read the highway warning signs.
Just sets my hair on end and causes my blood pressure to rise because of all the Spanish being spoken. Too many interviews being taped and shown on TV where the person being interviewed speaks NO ENGLISH. If nothing else these people need to speak and read English at an acceptable level. We make way too many accommodations on their behalf.
What crap.
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