With 55 mosques, 18 Hindu Temples, nine Sikh Gurudwaras, two Synagogues, two Buddhist centres and one Jain centre, Leicester has long been seen as a leading example of how modern Britain should work. We’re very proud to call Leicester our home, but, is it discriminatory to be told to speak in English at work?
Employee Language Barriers
With the increasing diversity of Leicester and the United Kingdom as a whole, most businesses now have employees who do not speak English as a first language. Whilst employees may understandably wish to speak in their native language to other colleagues of the same nationality, problems can arise when other employees feel excluded or managers are unable to understand what is being said. It is therefore vital that businesses understand what policies/requests will be seen as discrimination, and what constitutes a genuine business reason.
Genuine Business Reason
The Employment Appeal Tribunal recently upheld a decision that an instruction to an employee not to speak Russian at work was not direct race discrimination and not race harassment. The employer had a reasonable explanation for its actions which was unrelated to the employee’s nationality or national origins, this being that her English-speaking managers could not understand what was being said (which was particularly important in this case, given the sensitive nature of the employer’s business). This decision is in line with ACAS guidance which states that “employers should be wary of prohibiting or limiting the use of other languages within the workplace unless they can justify this with a genuine business decision”.
So What is Race Discrimination On the Grounds of Nationality or National Origins?
Discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation because of their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin. An example of unlawful race discrimination in the workplace is a Polish teacher who was asked not to speak in her native language with fellow Polish colleagues during break times. Whilst the courts have often drawn the distinction between a requirement to speak a certain language at work rather than a requirement not to speak a particular language, the former generally being seen more favourably, there is little case law to assist employers.
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