Language Orientation & Discrimination in the Workplace

Language orientation refers to the preferred language of a business. It also refers to an employee's preferred language. Known as the person's primary language or mother tongue, it is the language learned from birth and with which the person is most comfortable. Employee language orientation is often an indicator of national origin or race and any actions taken by an employer based on a worker's language orientation is a form of discrimination and illegal.

Language Discrimination Law

Refusing to hire or promote employees, along with disciplining or terminating them based on their accents, English fluency or because they do not comply with an English-only policy in personal conversations is discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In addition, language orientation discrimination in the workplace can be costly. In 2007, Flushing Manor Geriatric Center in New York agreed to pay $900,000 to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit due to a national origin lawsuit that included an English-only policy.

English-Only Rules

Employers cannot prohibit workers from speaking their primary language when it is not directly related to their work; for example, when they are taking a rest break or making a personal telephone call. A business must have a valid reason for an English-only policy, must notify all employees about the policy and must give them a "grace period" before enforcing the policy. Organizations may require English-only for emergency situations or when workers' health and safety depend on clear, prompt communication, such as a laboratory using hazardous materials or air traffic control operations. Customer service representatives may be required to speak only English when working with customers. In addition, English may be required when an English-speaking supervisor must monitor workers' performance in communicating with co-workers and customers or when employees work together on a project.

English Fluency Discrimination

An employer may refuse to hire or promote a worker if that person is not fluent enough in English to do the job. In Shieh v. Lyng, a 1990 discrimination lawsuit, a federal appeals court ruled that the employer (Lyng) properly demoted the plaintiff (Shieh) because his limited English skills did not permit him to write the intricate scientific documents his position required. Language fluency requirements are job-specific and vary from job to job within a department or organization. Blanket English-fluency requirements affecting all employees in a department or company may be illegal under Title VII.

Accent Discrimination

An employer cannot refuse to hire or promote an employee because of the person's accent. The employer must have a reasonable, nondiscriminatory justification if it makes an employee management decision based on a person's accent. The employer must show that the accent or language orientation interferes with the worker's job-related communications. Simply having a noticeable accent is not an appropriate basis for a personnel decision. Teachers, telemarketers and customer service representatives are jobs in which effective English communication skills are essential for job performance. Preferring one accent over another also is a form of language-orientation discrimination. For example, a call center manager may prefer to hire a customer service representative with an Australian accent rather than one with a Russian or Spanish accent.

References

• World Congress on Language Policies; English-Only Language Policies in United States; Dr. Zeynep F. Beykont
• EEOC; Geriatric Center to Pay $900,000 for Race Bias, National Origin Discrimination, Retaliation; April 2007
• EEOC: National Origin Discrimination
• Nolo; Language and Accent Discrimination in the Workplace; Lisa Guerin; 2010
• Workplace Fairness: Language Discrimination