English Only Rules Spark Controversy
English only rules always bring controversy, even at a bookstore in New Haven, Connecticut, very near Yale university. The EEOC generally frowns on such rules, but allows them for "business necessity." In this case, the book store is essentially claiming the customers are uncomfortable with employees speaking Spanish. Does the comfort of customers count as a business necessity? Maybe, according to Workplace Prof. It depends on whether there is evidence of discriminatory motivations. That means an employer seeking to implement such a policy needs to show something more than mere perception of what makes a customer happy.
It would also help to show some safety issue. .... Safety at a bookstore? Those paper cuts can be viscious.....
As on other campuses, each bookstore close to or adjacent to the Yale campus serves as its own little student union, with lots of loitering, reading, and passionate discussion of important ideas going on during business hours. Since most of the US students at Yale are fluent in one or more (!) foreign languages, and since Yale has a sizable number of foreign students, many of the conversations in and around Yale, including those going on in the bookstores, happen in a language other than English. With this in mind, how could an employee in a bookstore serving the Yale community not be comfortable with other employees speaking Spanish. . . or French, Russian, Mandarin, Quechua, Urdu, or Norwegian - any of which that bookstore employee might possibly hear during the course of their workday?
As often happens, these English-only rules just do not hold much water upon close examination.....
I work in a cash vault with millions of dollars in cash and guns on employees and/or easily accessible. Is it unfair to ask my fellow employees to speak a common language in such a potentially dangerous environment?
Safety is the one time, courts agree, that English-only rules make sense. As an employee, of course, you cannot impose your will on co-workers.