English Rule Discriminatory, Suit Says
Last updated Tuesday, September 6, 2005 10:13 PM CDT in News
By The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE -- Four Hispanics say a "no Spanish" rule at a Springdale company is discriminatory and have sued.
Gladys Alas, Maria Carmen Babb, Norberto Dublan and Isabel Lugo sued Rockline Industries in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville on Tuesday. They say the rule against using Spanish at work, including the break room, discriminates against them because of their country of origin.
All four claim they have a severely limited ability to communicate in any language other than Spanish in either a written or verbal form.
The suit also alleges for a period of time training and tests for promotions were done only in English, which discriminated against native Spanish speakers. The suit alleges employees lost pay and were disciplined, demoted, transferred or fired if they were unable to complete the English only training and testing required for promotion. Training and testing were later allowed in Spanish, according to the suit.
Alas and Dublan allege they were fired after failing to pass tests. Babb and Lugo still work at Rockline but were damaged by the English only practice, according to the suit.
The suit alleges Rockline adopted an English only policy in 2002.
The suit seeks class action on behalf of an estimated 264 workers of Hispanic origin employed by Rockline.
According to the suit, a series of complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Rockline employees resulted in a determination there was "reasonable cause" to believe Hispanic workers were discriminated against because of the English only policy.
Rockline has not yet filed an answer to the suit.
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