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November 20th, 2007 
James PetersAccording to an article in today's Los Angeles Times, Congressional Republicans are pushing to amend federal anti-discrimination laws to do away with the provision that prohibits employers from requiring employees to only speak English at work.
Currently, under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act such an "English-only" policy is considered national origin discrimination. There is a "business necessity" exception to this rule where speaking English is necessary to do the job. For example, a nurse who assists with surgeries must be able to speak English to communicate with the medical staff.
This amendment is unlikely to pass and is likely just pre-election posturing to bring the debate over immigration into the forefront of the electorate's consciousness.
However, most employees in California would not be affected by such a change, because California's Fair Employment and Housing Act also prevents English-only policies and is far more protective than Title VII in virtually all respects.
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[...] California Employee Rights Blog – discusses attempts by Congress to legalize English-only policies (and notes that California law is more restrictive, in any event) [...]
[...] we have pointed out in the past, such laws are invalid because they violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which [...]
I'm just wondering who is standing for the rights of all of those who speak english, why is it that we are in a country that the prime language is english, but those of us who only speak english, have to just shut up whenare co-workers are speaking their native language, hostile invironment for them, what about us. Why wouldn't anybody think this would be a hostile environment for those who speak only english, we have no idea what's being said or if it's being said about us. I just don't see how that's fair, the united states is a great country to live in and it should be respected as such,because if you came to this country to make it your home then learn it's language. If I was to move to a country who's prime language was not english I would have to learn their language and speak it, why not here? Who stands for the english speaking.