Is it legal for a supervisor to ban his spanish speaking employees to speak spanish at work?

Answer 1

If you and your co-workers are speaking Spanish, as a secondary form of communication, and English as your primary language, i don't think that it would be legal to ban the speaking of one language.

What other types of ethnicities do people bring to your place of employement??

Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, etc...

If the ethnicities vary, and i'm guessing they do, then he would have to ban every other person from speaking their home country's language, on top of speaking English.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The supervisor who banned Spanish spoken in the station did the right thing. She is responsible for what her subordinates do and SAY. If a visitor, or other officer came in and an officer said something that was out of line just how is the supervisor going to know about what was said? Latter, if the visitor or officer found out what was said the Supervisor would be accused of letting improper behavior occur. You can not supervise conduct if you do not know what is being said.
There is plenty of evidence of police misconduct unless you believe they never make mistakes in judgement.

Answer 3

If speaking Spanish is being done during work hours and interfering with the conduct of business it is perfectly legal and proper.

If workers are speaking Spanish on breaks and not interfering with the conduct of business, then the employer can still require employees to speak English on company property, although it may not be in his best interest to be so overbearing.

The employer has no control over employees off the property.

LATER EDIT: Just as you can control what happens in your home, on your property, so can the employer. An employer can have a rule, "No guns on the property". If an employee has a gun locked in his car in the parking lot, the employer can fire him (and win the court case) because the employer can establish rules for his property just as you can establish rules for your own property. When you are on private property, you do not have the standard First Amendment rights. You are bound by the property owner's rules. The First Amendment applies to PUBLIC property and to PUBLIC rules and laws, not to private property owners.

Answer 4

It may not be legal but it is a very good thing for him to do. If you work in an English speaking work place, you should speak English. Speaking Spanish is very excluding for your non-Spanish speaking co-workers and just plain rude.
In my work place there are groups of people who all are able to speak Portuguese, Spanish, Urdu, French, etc. We all speak English all of the time while at work.

Answer 5

Nobody has said this yet and this astounds me 1



SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY !

Hey Jose look out that beam is falling on your head ! Here catch this hot rivet ! One two three now push ! Do not remove this guard unless the equipment is locked out !

Places I have worked they segregated crews into Spanish/bi-lingual/English-only for these reasons----------good reasons I might add !

It indirectly perpetuated their not learning English but who knows how many of them (or us for that matter) it served to keep alive and well.

IT IS ILLEGAL FOR ANY EMPLOYER TO CONTINUE HAVING EMPLOYEES WORK IN AND UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT !

Answer 6

it is not legal, but they are working on some sort of law for it... with that said let me just say that this is a very hard topic i am mexican american and when i was 12 we moved to mexico (for 2 yrs) and did not no a single word of spanish.. no one learned english for me, i didn't have a special tutor or translator in school, i had to learn it!! and i am okay with that because now i can talk to my family and friends... so i think that if you go to any other country that you need to learn the language of that country

Answer 7

Definitely NOT legal!

If there is a large minority, perhaps he can talk with them personally and explain that it makes others who don't speak spanish feel excluded, and it definitely can make eng customers feel excluded.

Answer 8

If it is legal or not, I don't know, but he is a motherless guy.

Concerning the other answers, it gives the feeling that yanks are always snooping in other people's conversations.

What we are talking about IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS !

Answer 9

The national language of America is English, Period.
It is not even safe for non English speaking people to be in the work place. Consider and emergency. How many languages do you expect the emergency warnings to be in?
Don't like it? LEAVE NOW!

Answer 10

No. You are violating their freedom of speech. Jesus, CAN YOU JUST EFFING ACCEPT THEY SPEAK SPANISH? If they are legal, its FINE (much like my family who are legal Cubans) WE PAY THE TAXES JUST LIKE CHU, BUDDY!