Six Spanish-speaking employees at Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa have filed a lawsuit claiming the facility’s no-Spanish policy is discrimination.
The suit filed in Orange County Superior Court against the State of California, which operates Fairview, says the facility has a no-Spanish-speaking rule for employees that is strictly enforced during work hours, including breaks and lunch periods.
According to the lawsuit, the facility’s policy includes a written statement that says: “English is considered to be the official language of the state of California and should be spoken while doing the work of the state unless otherwise indicated by the needs of clients or their families.”
Under the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing Act, an employer can’t prohibit the use of any language in the workplace unless he can show it’s justified by business necessity.
Fairview Developmental Center is a state-run residential facility that provides care for about 275 patients with developmental disabilities.
The plaintiffs are five food service workers and one custodian who do not interact with patients as part of their job duties, said their attorney, Joseph Scully.
“If two 50-year-old ladies washing dishes want to have a conversation in Spanish, how is there an overriding business necessity?” he said.
A spokesperson for Fairview declined to comment last week, saying the facility just recently received a copy of the lawsuit and was reviewing its allegations.
The employees – Rosaura Herrera, Lillian Torres, Delfino Herrera, Jorge Torres, Ana Alicia and Alfonso Ramirez – are all longtime staff members who are native Spanish speakers, Scully said.
According to the suit, filed June 18, supervisors frequently eavesdrop on conversations and will hand out disciplinary notes if they catch employees speaking Spanish. The policy creates a hostile work environment where employees are “systematically bullied and intimidated,” the lawsuit contends.
The plaintiffs say they are treated as “second-class employees” with no opportunity for advancement because they speak English as a second language. They are asking for unspecified amount in damages.
Scully, a Los Angeles-based attorney, has a similar lawsuit pending for a veteran Los Angeles police detective claiming discrimination over a no-Spanish policy in the LAPD’s Foothill Station.
In federal cases, theU.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reached significant settlements in language discrimination lawsuits.
Most recently, in 2012, a medical center in the San Joaquin Valley agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by theEEOC and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center on behalf of 70 Filipino American hospital workers who said they faced discriminated over an English-only policy.
Contact the writer: kpuente@ocregister.com, 714-834-3773
