Language In America English on the Job

Language in America - English on the Job

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The federal government attempts to regulate private choice of language in workplace rules. Employers may generally decide how their workplace is run, and usually can decide how their workers are to do their jobs. Federal courts allow employers to tell their workers what to say on the job, including the language to use. Source: Garcia v. Gloor, 618 F.2d 264 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1113 (1981).

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, however, "presumes" that employers who tell employees to speak English on the job are discriminating on the basis of national origin. Source: 29 C.F.R. 1606.7.

Federal courts have rejected this EEOC rule as illegal. Source: Garcia v. Spun-Steak Co., 998 F.2d 1480 (9th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 2726 (1994). Workplace language rules aren’t national origin discrimination because the language a person speaks can’t be equated with their national origin. Source: Soberal-Perez v. Heckler, 717 F.2d 36, 41 (2nd Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 929 (1984). Non- Hispanics, for example, speak Spanish, and many Hispanic-Americans don’t.

Nevertheless, for the last several years, the EEOC has annually pursued about 120 "workplace language discrimination" cases against employers. Source: FOIA request. Some of these investigations are undertaken in areas of the country where the federal courts have already rejected the EEOC rule. Source: Id. Relying on two vacated (and thus obsolete) rulings from a California judge, the EEOC says that the courts are wrong, and it will continue to pursue employers administratively even if it can’t sue in court. Often EEOC charges are enough to force employers to abandon their workplace rules without a trial.