Reverse Discrimination?

Chris Wersal

This question comes from a small county (non-union so far) anticipating a potential reverse discrimination allegation.

We hired a spanish speaking hispanic clerk (Maria)in our Auditor/Treasurer office approximately 2 years ago. Customer service is not her primary job responsibility. However over the last two years we have seen an increase in hispanic customers throughout out complex who do not speak English. As a result, Maria is increasingly called upon to interpret for the customer.

Her department head feels that she should receive additional compensation for her special skill and plans to request that her position be studied for reclassification consideration. Our question is: If that bid is successful and her position is classified to a higher paying position, would a claim of reverse discrimination be valid if claimed by a non-hispanic worker who does not have that special skill?

We also recognize that the reclassification consultant would not (should not) be privy to her nationality, but her co-workers would obviously have that knowledge should the reclass be successful.

Has anyone had any same or similar situations occur which would give us some direction in how to handle this situation?

Mel in CO

I don't think that you would be running the risk of reverse discrimination IF you make it a job requirement or a preferred requirement of that position that any individual in that position be bilingual in Spanish and English. I think that if you don't make it a job requirement, then you may be running the risk of a reverse discrimination case. Since you have increasingly more Spanish speaking only customers, and you probably don't see your business decreasing in Spanish speaking only customers, then you probably will want to make it a requirement of the position. You will probably want to document this requirement via a job description or other recruitment material. Then if the current individual ever leaves your employment, you will probably want to hire someone that is bilingual in that position again so that you and/or your staff is able to communicate with the customers. At that point you will have a mirage of individual from varying races and ages that are bilingual Spanish/English. Keep in mind also that Hispanic individuals are not the only ones that are bilingual in the Spanish and English languages. Good luck!

Carol CA

Is Maria doing both her Auditor/Treasury work AND Customer Service work? If she is doing two jobs, then she could well be eligible for additional compensation. I assume the other customer service people aren't qualified to also perform the auditor/treasury work?

If she has in essence transferred over and is now doing only customer service work, she should be paid about the same as the other customer service workers. She might be slightly higher in the grade if Spanish-speaking customer service reps are hard to come by in your area, but she is doing the same job as the other customer service employees.

Keep in mind that you should always rate the JOB, NOT the PERSON!

Hatchetman

Has your county considered just paying a bonus for bilingual skills? The base compensation would be the same for any employee doing Maria's job, but for an employee who has bilingual skills and uses it you pay additional compensation or a bonus of some kind. Of course, you need to make the bonus worth it monetarily.

By doing that you cut down on the issues of some emplyees being paid differently for doing the exact same job, but do instead recognize the regular use of a skill that one employee has that another doesn't. I think most employees would probably recognize the legitimacy of that and not impact morale in comparison where it is perceived that someone's "base salary is upped simply because he or she is Hispanic."

Pork

You probably should also offer basic spanish training to all of your customer service personnel positions. If an employee then chooses not to participate and be able to handle the obvious growing hispanic customers population, that individual has no complaint. All are treated equally and fairly. You can also then upgrade the earnings capability of all positions. We pay our Hispanic english speaking supervisors more for there ability to interview hispanics, assist in the enrollment, and does the on-the-job-training. We have 11 remote locations and we are moving to one location being an entire hispanic operation. We feel the hispanic worker is without question our strongest worker, as an individual. As a team they become even stronger. Given the opportunity to "sail their own ship" in competition with our american worker teams, the Hispanic team will "blow their socks off". The Hispanic worker, given a chance is, for the most part, similiar to our older worker; "work ethic" is identified as hard working and dedicated to his/her company and his/her family. The idea of a bonus for speaking and working the customer base with a second language is good. Make it public and make it available to all of your customer service employees. Your government attorney should be able to help you draft the proposal and get it approved. Good luck!

HS

We feel the hispanic worker is without question our
>strongest worker, as an individual. As a team they become even
>stronger. Given the opportunity to "sail their own ship" in
>competition with our american worker teams, the Hispanic team will
>"blow their socks off". The Hispanic worker, given a chance is, for
>the most part, similiar to our older worker; "work ethic" is
>identified as hard working and dedicated to his/her company and
>his/her family.


Well, that's quite a generalization! Speaking of being warry about discrimination...making generalizations such as your statement above; could invite trouble...regardless of whether or not it's true for you, it's not true for all.

Gillian

If I were an attorney I could cite examples, but I'm not so I won't, however, there have been cases where individuals who had to perform the extra duty of being called upon to speak a different language and who were paid the same as those who didn't were ruled to have been discriminated against. Extra pay for extra duties are perfectly OK. If the extra work is becoming a regular thing then you should consider a revision of the job description. Mel is correct, Spanish speaking is not a racial characteristic.

B_Jackson

I agree that the emphasis is on the job and the needs of the position. If the position requires being bilingual, English and Spanish, the job should be evaluated and placed in the proper job class. It may mean an upgrade or it may not. The question is this an essential aspect of the job. It raises the question regarding any large customer base, and the need to meet their needs. It may not be just Spanish, although this is our largest minority group.

Crout

Pork, I would suggest that you go ahead and take the Cultural-Diversity Training you may be offering to your employees. For the record, my bi-lingual wife with her Hispanic ethnicity is just as "american" as you or me.