Assessing English-only policies in the workplace

Q: How can we legally and respectfully ask an employee to improve their English language skills?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency that oversees federal enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, has addressed “English-only” policies in recent years.

The agency has articulated that a rule requiring employees to speak only English in the workplace is presumed to violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal antidiscrimination law. A policy that’s applied only at certain times may be adopted in limited circumstances that are justified by business necessity, however.

Examples of this include tailoring the rule to communications with customers, coworkers, or supervisors who only speak English, in emergencies or other situations in which employees must speak a common language to promote safety, for cooperative work assignments in which English is needed to promote efficiency, or to enable a supervisor who only speaks English to monitor the performance of an employee whose job duties require communication in English with coworkers and customers. Any English-only rule can’t extend to casual communications between employees on break or not performing a job duty.

Notably, the EEOC’s regulations recognize that sometimes speaking English, which may require proficiency, is a business necessity in some circumstances. As a result, if an employer has a legitimate, nondiscriminatory business necessity justifying the need for an employee to be proficient in English, it can require proficiency in English as a job requirement.