Co-workers complain they can’t understand her — is that bias?
March 19, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Discrimination, Harassment, Latest News & Views
In a diverse workplace, you might need to give supervisors some extra sensitivity training to avoid illegal bias.
In one recent court case, an employee complained that she was regularly harassed by co-workers because of her national origin.
She was originally from Mexico and spoke Spanish as her first language. Other employees had problems with her limited English — she claimed they would often respond to her comments by yelling, “What? What?” or “I do not understand you.”
The woman complained to her boss about how she was being treated, but no action was ever taken. The manager’s reaction: They were just voicing legitimate complaints about her communication skills.
But she didn’t see it that way — she sued the company for allowing a hostile work environment.
The court agreed. The employee demonstrated she knew enough English to do her job. Her co-workers clearly weren’t making legitimate complaints, they were taunting and harassing her.
The company failed to have the case thrown out and will now face a costly jury trial.
The lesson for managers: If it looks like employees are giving someone a hard time because of anything related to race, religion, gender or ethnicity, it’s your duty to step in and stop it.
Cite: Navarro v. U.S. Tsubaki, Inc.
Tags: English-only, national origin
March 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
How sad and childish! One of our managers is from Mexico and has a very thick accent, but he has an incredible grasp of English – earned his PhD here. We can all understand him. Yes, his accent took some time to get used to, but that’s true of native English speakers from other parts of the country. Our main outside counsel is in Memphis, but we are in the midwest. Sometimes her accent is a challenge. You’d never catch me taunting her! Pathetic!
March 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I agree. But what will happen here soon is that some of our peers will fail to get the point of and reason for the lawsuit. They will base their feelings of ‘fairness’ from the narrow point of view of what they personally feel about immigration or some of a different culture; exactly the reason for the suit. I apologize for my paranoia but I have seen it too often before.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:45 am
John –
True. That is just part and parcel of a public forum. You get a wide range of opinions, which is great, but some of them are better informed than others. Did you see the “discussion” of the Merry Christmas article back a few months ago? Folks on both sides of the issue threw business best practices and principles of employment law out the window and descended into petty personal attacks and hatefulness.
Not everyone is capable of taking that step back from their own morals, emotions, whatever and looking at things from a different perspective.