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California Officials Show Displeasure with English-Only Policies.
By Cecilia Kang, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 6--Jesus Cuellar was hired in part for his ability to speak Spanish to customers. But when it came to speaking with fellow employees, his bilingual skills weren't welcome.
His supervisor at the Department of Health Services in Berkeley handed him a written policy stating that he could only speak Spanish to colleagues during breaks and lunch hours.
"I was shocked," said Cuellar, 36, a native of El Salvador. "I felt discriminated against."
A bill on Gov. Gray Davis' desk seeks to address the concerns of workers like Cuellar, who think they should be allowed to speak whatever language they please in the workplace.
"English-only" policies are already prohibited by state Fair Employment and Housing Department regulations. But in California, where one in four people is an immigrant and there is no ethnic majority, legislators and civil rights groups want to take the regulations one step further, codifying them in state law.
Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, who sponsored the bill (AB 800), hopes to send a clear message to employers: The state does not condone English-only policies.
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Source: HighBeam Research, California Officials Show Displeasure with English-Only Policies.