A group of Filipino employees working with a California hospital has sued their employer saying that he was forcing them to speak only in English. Filipinos are the largest ethnic group in the hospital and this they consider as a basic violation of their freedom of language.
There are a total of 52 nurses and medical staff in the hospital and they have filed a suit against the Delano Regional Medical Center for asking them not to speak in Filipino language even among themselves. They are not allowed to speak in Tagalog and other Filipino languages while other staff have no ban on speaking in their mother tongue Spanish or French or Hindi.
The Filipino staff has been threatened that surveillance cameras has been installed and they are being continuously monitored to see that they are not speaking in any Filipino language. They were asked to speak in English among themselves even during the break hours.
All the 52 Filipino staff has placed the complaint before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County Federal court, explaining the rule against them. According to the California law of the land, employees are required to speak in English only if there is a business necessity.
