English Only? Rethinking Language Requirements in a Multicultural Work World

Carol Gilmore
Martha A. Broderick

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DOI: 10.2190/IE.12.4.e

Abstract

This article explores how language discrimination is discouraged by federal regulations and some court cases. Employers who presume that "English only, no accents" is a bonafide occupational qualification will find such a policy limited by law to occasions where customers or other co-workers are not able to understand the employees' English or when the workplace is disrupted by the use of other languages during work. In several recent cases, most notably Fragante v. Honolulu [1], the courts are taking a searching look at such policies to be sure they do not mask discrimination based on national origin.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.