LOS ANGELES – Dozens of Filipino hospital workers in California sued their employer Tuesday alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English. The group of 52 nurses and medical staff filed a complaint accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of banning them from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages while letting other workers speak Spanish and Hindi. The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August complaint filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County federal court over the hospital's enforcement of a rule requiring workers to speak English. Filipino workers said they were called to a special meeting in August 2006 where they were warned not to speak Tagalog and told surveillance cameras would be installed, if necessary, to monitor them. Since then, workers said they were told on a daily basis by fellow staffers to speak only English, even on breaks. "I felt like people were always watching us," said tearful 56-year-old Elnora Cayme, who worked for the hospital from 1980 to 2008. "Even when we spoke English ... people would come and approach us and tell us, 'English only.'" The EEOC has seen an increase in complaints alleging discrimination based on national origin amid a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, said Anna Park, a regional attorney for the EEOC. That's especially the case in California's central valley, where a greater share of the complaints the agency receives relate to such issues than in the nation as a whole. Under California law, employers may require workers to speak English if there is a business necessity, Su said. Delano Regional Medical Center is a 156-bed hospital located about 30 miles north of Bakersfield.
When will these stupid immigrants get it thru their heads?!?! If you plan on immigrating to America...LEARN ENGLISH!!!! If I were to immigrate to Japan for work, you bet your ass I would learn the language.
Whoa now, that would make too much sense. We all know that America is the melting pot, so that means all of the ingredients added have to overpower the original ingredient rather than uplift or enhance it in anyway. Oh well, I say let them keep adding too much salt to the soup. If they win this case give them and similar cases the like about fifty or so years and see if they feel so upset when the world around them is sounding like the tower of Babel.
If they are on break or lunch and speaking a foreign language who cares. If they are on the clock and patient care/lives are at stake they should speak English. I mean if I was coding and no one came because they all didn't speak the same language and communicate within the work enviroment, I might have a problem with that.
dude what are you talking about. if you read carefully it is more than likely they were talking non business issues at work in their native tongue thus why should they accomodate you and me. I would give a rats ass unless they were talking business. I want to see what is the reason for only english when it is nonbusiness...especially most business' want bilingual employees because it helps them out
i hate when the bilinguals talk 'shop' in native tongues, after I ask a question. I recently thought my frozen-food had a discount attached to them, so when the Indian dude rung me up full-price, I was like 'hell naw' and started asking him about the big discount label on freezer door. He said he didn't know anything of it, and started jabbering to another coworker in some shit I didn't understand. Lasted for about 2 minutes. How am I supposed to argue my stance and contribute to the solution, if I can't follow along with what they're talking about?:smt021
