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Overreaching English-Only Policies Spell Trouble for Employers

By Delyanne Barros
January 30, 2012

In May 2011, eight Hispanic employees of the City of Rochester, NY, filed an action against the City, among other defendants, for implementing a sweeping English-only policy that prohibited Spanish from being spoken at all times, including breaks and whether it was within or outside the presence of non-Spanish speaking employees. (See Rodriguez v. City of Rochester, No. 6:11-cv-06256-MAT (W.D.N.Y. 2011).) According to the complaint, the employees' manager told them, “if you want to speak Spanish, do it at home and not at the workplace.” (Id.)

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