EEOC SUING SALVATION ARMY FOR REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO SPEAK ENGLISH ON THE JOB

Washington, Jul 26, 2007 - "Although federal courts have upheld broadly the right of business owners to require employees to speak English on the job, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against the Salvation Army for requiring employees to speak English at work," stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).  "In this instance, the Salvation Army gave two employees one year to learn English to function on the job.  However, they failed to try to learn even some basic English and were let go.  The EEOC is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in monetary damage to compensate these two employees for the emotional pain, suffering, and inconvenience they suffered by being asked to speak English to the best of their ability while on the job."
Stearns today offered an amendment to H.R. 3093, The Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act, to prevent the EEOC from using any funds to initiate civil action or file a motion in any court on the grounds that the entity requires an employee to speak English while engaged in work.  The amendment was rejected by a vote of 212 to 202.
Added Stearns, "In 2003, a federal judge in Boston upheld the Salvation Army's policy requiring workers to speak English while on the job.  However, the EEOC continues to harass the Salvation Army. The EEOC estimates that it will have a backlog of 54,265 complaints in fiscal year 2007 and 67,108 complaints by fiscal year 2008. These are our tax dollars at work, yours and mine, paying the salaries of the EEOC lawyers who file endless lawsuits while the Salvation Army must use its own funds, funds that would be better used helping the poor, instead of hiring attorneys to fight these kinds of cases."