Immigration-related issues continue to dominate the headlines.  The latest fight is a heated debate in Congress over English-only rules in the workplace.

For more than three decades, federal rules have generally prohibited employers from implementing English-only requirements.  But Senate Republicans recently succeeded in passing a measure that would prevent the EEOC from filing lawsuits to enforce those rules.

The sponsor of the measure, Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, argues that employers should be free to require employees to communicate in English.  “One way to make sure that we have a . . . little more unity that is our country’s greatest accomplishment is to make certain that we value our common language,” Alexander said last week.  “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,’” Alexander added.

House Democrats and others have attacked the lawsuit ban, arguing that it will lead to increased national origin discrimination.  Members of the Hispanic Caucus called Alexander’s amendment ”unnecessary language,” asserting that Title VII already allows employers to impose English-only rules where there is a legitimate business need.  “You can have English-only rules . . . if in fact that English-only rule is relevant to job performance, safety, efficiency and so on,” said Representative Charles Gonzalez, a
Democrat from Texas.  “If it is not relevant, if it is discriminatory, if it is gratuitous, if it is a subterfuge to discriminate against people based on national origin — which we know that’s what it is — the EEOC doesn’t allow it.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 10:02 am and is filed under Employment Law News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.