Can an employer set conditions for staff to use only English in the workplace?
Captain Ed asks that question because the EEOC believes it is discriminatory, and has lawsuits pending against companies including the Salvation Army. The Senate and the Congress passed legislation overruling the EEOC, but it looks like Nancy took some heat from the Hispanic Caucus.
It’s been less than a week since New York’s Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Eliot Spitzer had to climb down from their support of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican from Tennessee, is dumbstruck that legislation he views as simple common sense would be blocked. He noted that the full Senate passed his amendment to shield the Salvation Army by 75-19 last month, and the House followed suit with a 218-186 vote just this month. “I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job,’ ” he told the Senate last Thursday.
But that’s exactly what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying to do. In March the EEOC sued the Salvation Army because its thrift store in Framingham, Mass., required its employees to speak English on the job. The requirement was clearly posted and employees were given a year to learn the language. The EEOC claimed the store had fired two Hispanic employees for continuing to speak Spanish on the job. It said that the firings violated the law because the English-only policy was not “relevant” to job performance or safety.
“We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.”~ President Theodore Roosevelt
For over 230 years, this country has taken in new residents from all over the world. The new immigrants learned to speak the English language in order to function in our society. The language they spoke in their homes was no one else’s business. For over 230 years this system worked well. Now we have people in government telling us that the system is broken? No, the system isn’t broken. We are catering to a group that has no intention of assimilating to our culture, they expect us to adopt theirs and call it a day!
November 19, 2007 - 09:12 AM on November 19th, 2007
Time to tell the illegal immigrants that if they want to demand legal citizens speak their language, it is time for them to go home, RAPIDO!!
November 19, 2007 - 09:25 AM on November 19th, 2007
Yes, an employer may.
November 19, 2007 - 09:54 AM on November 19th, 2007
Its time to make english the nations official languge and dump this whole biliguial poppycock nonsense
November 19, 2007 - 10:20 AM on November 19th, 2007
English Only Laws
The EEOC recently ruled that requirements that employees speak English on the job violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This led to action in Congress to overturn the regulations, which in turn sparked heated exchanges among the legislators, John Fund …
November 19, 2007 - 01:29 PM on November 19th, 2007
Time to abolish the EEOC and tell those biliguial wacks GET A LIFE
November 19, 2007 - 07:21 PM on November 19th, 2007
[...] of Insanity, California Conservative, The Hot Joints, Betsy’s Page, Captain’s Quarters, Right Voices, Michelle Malkin Share Article Nancy Pelosi, English, illegal immigration, Hillary Clinton, Eliot [...]
November 19, 2007 - 09:56 PM on November 19th, 2007
I believe Sen. Alexander is trying to ride the fence on illegal immigration. On the one hand he says he wants to protect employers from suits forcing language accommodation but on the other he wants taxpayers to pay for English language training of illegals and his website has a Spanish option (http://www.alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Spanish.Home). I don’t see him as being consistent on the issue. I don’t see him as setting a standard as a leader.
November 19, 2007 - 10:04 PM on November 19th, 2007
I’m sorry, this is a correction for my Alexander post.
He wants to provide grants for legal immigrants seeking to become citizens to learn English.
November 20, 2007 - 08:49 AM on November 20th, 2007
I agree with Snowy…dump the EEOC. End it NOW!!!
November 20, 2007 - 11:20 PM on November 20th, 2007
7&8 Thanks Mark…Did our relatives receive English lessons when they got off the boat way back in the day? Mine didn’t..they taught themselves so that they could contribute rather than take from society.
November 20, 2007 - 11:21 PM on November 20th, 2007
I
snowy
November 21, 2007 - 11:11 PM on November 21st, 2007
Want to know two recent immigrants who learned ENGLISH in order to pursue their careers in this country? Charlize Theron and Salma Hayek. While it’s pretty obvious that Salma Hayek is of hispanic (Mexican) descent. Charlize Theron is from South Africa. Yes, Charlize Theron is more African than 95% of the blacks in this country because, well, she was born there. She spoke Afrikaan (a German/dutch derivative from before the Boer War) and learned English by watching “Love Boat” reruns on tv. Dad.s dad came over on the boat from Poland and had to go through Eliis Island. He didn’t have the luxury of being able to speak Polish at work. He had to learn to speak English. Any foreign national who refuses to learn English in under a year should be fired. Any restaurant that doesn’t insist on English speaking employees should not be frequented. I’m tired of my orders being fubar everytime I go into a fast food joint because instead of hiring Jill and Bobby, they’re busy hiring Jose and Maria who don’t speak English for squat.