language barrier

karenmc

Two spanish speaking employees were making ugly remarks about other employees. A new employee who happens to understand Spanish told the manager. The manager wants to require them to speak only English is the workplace. Can we do that?

Parabeagle

Short answer: No. Unless there are safety-related or job-related reasons to require English only, the courts have not been very friendly to companies requiring employees to speak only English. You could probably get away with requesting that they only speak English while communicating with English-speaking employees in the course of their duties, but would not be able to prohibit them from talking to each other in their native language on breaks, lunch, etc. I would recommend sitting down with the employees and a translator and inform them that you have been advised of the fact that some of the comments they have been making are apparently inappropriate to the workplace and that further instances will be dealt with in accordance with your company's disciplinary policy

karenmc

Thanks, I was just looking at the current legal battles going on regarding this and would rather not be a case study.

lnelson

This was discussed a couple of months ago do a search on English only policies.

But I believe you can enforce as long as it is for business necessity (such as contact with customer or safety issues)and stated in your employee policies. You must allow ee's to speak native language on their breaks or lunch.

If you do not want to go to this extreme then discipline for the name callling incident only.