Forum - can we require our staff to speak English?
You are here:A client has raised an interesting situation involving people speaking in a language other than English in the workplace. Whose rights do we trample? Join our forum on the topic.
The Issue
"A staff member has raised the question of Non English Speaking Background staff talking amongst themselves in their native tongue whilst at work and in the staff room. The staff member concerned feels alienated at times and feels everyone should be made to speak English while at work.
Do any of you guys have a policy for this or is it a problem in your business.
Any advice or policies would be appreciated."
Our Response
Introducing a policy that people could only speak English would clearly raise issues of race discrimination (either direct or indirect).
How about this as a solution? Educating staff about treating others the way you would like to be treated.
If I was the English speaker, I can understandably feel left out of a conversation between 2 NESB's speaking in other than English. If I was the NESB person/s, I would probably feel more comfortable speaking in my original language. What is the middle ground?
Some creative solutions would be one of the NESBs then explaining during / immediately afterwards what they were talking about or were about to talk about.
That way, everyone is hopefully happy.
Interesting topic.
What do you think?
Are we looking at this too simplistically? What similar situations have you encountered? What happened?
Use the Comments feature below to tell us what you think.
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