Require English-Only at work?

Q. I work as a housekeeper for a hotel. The hotel has adopted a policy requiring employees to speak only English while in the workplace, including when speaking to coworkers during breaks or when making personal telephone calls. The hotel has placed Hispanic workers under close scrutiny to ensure compliance and has replaced workers who violate the rule with non-Hispanics. I am a native Spanish speaker, and I believe the policy discriminates against me. The hotel states that the rule was adopted to promote better employee relations and to help improve English skills. Can my boss really do this?

A. Under these circumstances, no. Especially if the hotel cannot produce evidence of poor employee relations due to communication in languages other than English. If proficient English skills are not required for any of the positions held by non-native English speakers, or if you can show that the hotel acted in a harassing manner, the English-only rule is likely to be found unlawful.

In some limited circumstances, the EEOC says business necessity could justify an English-only rule, such as for communications with customers, coworkers, or supervisors who only speak English, or for emergencies or other situations in which workers must speak a common language to promote safety. It may also be permissible for cooperative work assignments in which the English-only rule is needed to promote efficiency, or if an employee's job duties require communication with coworkers or customers, it could be permissible to enable a supervisor who only speaks English to monitor the performance of an employee. However even if a policy could be appropriate for some limited circumstances, it is never appropriate to enforce it in a harassing way.