CNS News – by Brittany M. Hughes
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency tasked with enforcing workplace discrimination laws, is suing a private American business for firing a group of Hispanic and Asian employees over their inability to speak English at work, claiming that the English-language requirement in a U.S. business constitutes “discrimination.”
Judicial Watch reported Tuesday that the government is accusing Wisconsin Plastics, Inc. of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on “national origin.” The government argues this includes the “linguistic characteristics of a national origin group.”
Irene Garcia, the blog editor and Spanish media liaison for Judicial Watch, called the EEOC’s accusation “ludicrous.”
“That’s ludicrous and an overreaching of government,” Garcia told CNSNews.com. “If you are a private company in the United States, you should be able to require your employees to speak English.”
According to a news release from the EEOC, Chicago Regional Attorney John C. Hendrickson said the Green Bay-based company’s English requirement is based on “superficial” reasoning.
(AP Photo)
“Our experience at the EEOC has been that so-called ‘English only’ rules and requirements of English fluency are often employed to make what is really discrimination appear acceptable. But superficial appearances are not fooling anyone,” Hendrickson said in the release. “When speaking English fluently is not, in fact, required for the safe and effective performance of a job, nor for the successful operation of the employer’s business, requiring employees to be fluent in English usually constitutes employment discrimination on the basis of national origin — and thus violates federal law.”
But Garcia said the ability to speak English is necessary for employees of Wisconsin Plastics, Inc., but that the employees in question “were not able to speak English at any kind of level that would be considered proficient.”
“In this case some English is necessary to communicate with supervisors and stuff like that, and the EEOC just went after this private company because some employees were being marked down for not having English skills. So that doesn’t really make sense,” she said.
(AP Photo)
Garcia added that the lawsuit, filed on June 9, is just the latest in a slew of attempts by the EEOC and the Obama administration to go after American businesses for so-called “discrimination.” She cited numerous cases in which the EEOC has accused businesses of discriminating by requiring workers to speak English, running background and criminal checks, and enforcing company-wide restrictions on head coverings, including those worn by some Muslim women.
“We’ve seen some decisions that are kind of radical that we haven’t seen in the past, under Republican or Democrat administrations,” she said, claiming the EEOC under the Obama administration is “on a roll.”
Many lawsuits brought by the EEOC subjectively twist the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include things it was never meant to cover, Garcia added.
“We’re seeing a lot of these kinds of law suits using his civil rights law to sue on behalf of all these different causes that I believe violate the spirit of the law,” Garcia explained.
“In terms of religious and language rights under the Civil Rights Act, that’s what the administration is using to offer and extend protects when really and truly there’s no place for them [in the law],” she said.
WOW!!!
Teddy Roosevelt:
“In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919.
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country,” he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. “English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools.” http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_roosevelt_on_immigrants.htm
“We can have no “50-50” allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.” http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/like/every_immigrant_who_comes_here_should_be_required/325314/
Thinking of a certain usurper that begs to differ…
AMEN!
Thank you Angel. As usual, you are on top of things. I love your resourcefulness. 🙂
Yep Angel, you beat me to it. That Teddy Roosevelt quote says it all.
Completely ridiculous as business should be able to hire and fire at will,that said,there is always a reason you can find to not hire someone/rent em a place ect.On a side note,while business should be able to fire at will,well,as for giving notice if quitting,well,notice I am leaving!
101 reasons to go Galt!
English is the National language by LAW here. Having people on the job that can not comunicate in English creats a great if not deadly job hazard for those who must work with them in a emergency. You also see many jobs here posted must speak Spanish! That is reverse discrimination! I can see some exceptions here. Like a job for translator and such. But what if UPS. drops off the wrong box on a dilivery. Has happened before. And lack of Enlish leads them to open a box of Bio Hazard in the work place? And can not tell every one to run for it. But have to cary it threw the work place for the Boss to look at?
in an english-speaking country,
if you work in a factory or workshop enviroment then english is a safety requirement.
if something is live or a big object is about to fall, it’s no good if people cant shout warnings to each other.
what people should do is get a language-dictionary for some obscure language.
maybe some african dialect or something.
then use the dictionary to fill in all government forms.
because if they complain they cant read it, or it “needs” to be in english, you can sue for discrimination!!! 😀
fight fire with fire!
Khazar ‘jew’ divide and conquer in action.
-flek
Totally unjust to the company but why did they hire them in the first place if they couldn’t speak English?
maybe they didnt,
maybe the fools used an employment agency to get staff.