English in the workplace
hrogre
1 Post
We have a work unit where two employees insist on speaking in their native language at work. Other employees in the unit are offended by this and have complained that they are being talked about and laughed at by the employees not speaking english. Productivity is down and morale is shot. The two employees admit that they are in fact talking about their co-workers and at times laughing at them, but insist it is their right to use their native language at work for non work related reasons. Appeals to them to consider how their behavior affects others have had no affect.
Comments
Firstly, check with your state's laws regarding English only. Is there one and what does it provide?
If there is no law, EEOC does consider "English only" rules to be discriminatory in violation of CRA unless the employer can establish a business necessity and follows certain procedures to notify employees of the non-English rule and enforces it. See their regulations at 29CFR1606.7 (Code of Federal Regulations).
The problem is that now that the employees have said that they are gossiping about their co-workers, do you have a business necessity to deal with their non-English gossip? Are you prepared to prevent other employees from speaking non-English as part of social interaction with each other? Is a ban on gossip, as part of maintaining an effective and efficient workforce, a "business necessity"?
Do you have a policy that prohibits gossip about co-workers? Even if you do, how do you enforce it and how would you enforce a "non-English" speaking gossip rule? If you say that the employees may not gossip about other employees in a non-English language, you're still no better off than having a general prohibition. So, you would either have to accept their use of the non-English language or demonstrate that their use of any language other than English at ANYTIME in the workplace, even at lunch, flies in the face of business needs. And I think that may be hard to do. I bet those employees who are complaining about these two would object if they couldn't speak what ever language they wanted to converse in with their co-worker friends.
Even if these two employees are gossiping about the other employees in their native language, so what. They can't carry their gossip out to other people unless they speak English to them, since no one else speaks their language. So, in essence, the gossip is just between themselves and wouldn't lead to general gossip in the workplace, by itself.
But these employees need to be told that making fun of others, regardless of the language they use, is inappropriate. Even if they are doing it on their break or in the break areas, they are violating company policy. They have admitted making fun of co-workers and, in my opinion, should be counseled for it. (It is not the use of their native language, it is the fact that they are violating the company's policy against making fun of others) Obviously, they transmitted what they were doing by inappropriate pointing and laughing or something. If they had said it in English they would be held accountable, so I do not see why their saying it in another language would make it "ok".
Before imposing any discipline, however, I would advise you to review the situation closely with legal counsel and make sure the written documents clearly show that it was not the use of their native language that caused the discipline.
Good Luck
Perhaps what you really have is a diversity issue.
How long have the bi-lingual employees been at work in the unit? Can you assign them to rotate working with other members so they can get to know them better. That way they can all laugh and gossip about management.