Auraria janitors say lack of Spanish communication is discrimination

[SuperiorDG]

You are gotta love this.

A dozen Spanish-speaking custodial workers at the Auraria Higher Education Center filed formal grievances with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday against their employer.

The group is charging AHEC with national origin discrimination, saying a lack of communication in their native language has resulted in unfair working conditions.
Tim Markham, an attorney representing the group, said issues have ranged from the janitors being pricked by needles to changes in scheduling that have led to pay decreases.
All of the problems, Markham said, have resulted because AHEC, the umbrella organization for the campus shared by Metropolitan State University of Denver, the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver, won't communicate with the workers in Spanish.
"Until you address that, you can't engage on the specific issues," he said.
Blaine Nickeson, an AHEC vice president, said that he couldn't comment specifically on the grievances because they hadn't received notification of the filing. However, he said, AHEC was aware that some members of the custodial staff were unhappy.
"We have a staff of over 100 custodians, and a small group of them were dissatisfied with changes that were made about a year and a half ago," Nickeson said. "There were recourses available to them, and they took the opportunity to use them; however, the issues weren't resolved to their satisfaction."
That group went through state-sponsored mediation.
Nickeson said AHEC's human resource department offers some translation services, but Markham said that is not sufficient, saying other universities, such as the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Colorado at Boulder provide their policies, procedures — even disciplinary actions — in numerous languages.
Last fall, some custodial workers were laid off and others had their hours changed, resulting in an almost 3 percent pay cut. Markham said the workers signed off on the changes unknowingly because they were presented to them in English.
Nickeson countered that there was nothing for the group to approve or disapprove of.
"It was a decision made by the state. The employees weren't asked about it," he said. "Notice was given to them. It wasn't about asking them to confirm or reject the changes."
The EEOC is expected to conduct interviews with the workers within the next two weeks.The commission can also offer mediation in the hopes of reaching a settlement. If no agreement is reached, the EEOC could dismiss the case or decide to file charges and litigate.
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton@denverpost.com or twitter.com/anthonycottondp

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[Ronin13]

Hi, welcome to America- we speak effing ENGLISH here! This should be thrown out on the grounds that French speaking custodial staff in Germany don't have these issues, but I guess America is somehow different?

[RblDiver]

Markham said the workers signed off on the changes unknowingly because they were presented to them in English.

Understanding things before you sign them? Blasphemy!

(My mom used to tell the story of how she learned this the hard way when at her school a petition was sent around...asking for more homework. The teachers complied!)

[MrPrena]

Okay.... it is discrimination to put Spanish for Spanish speakers only.
How about people who speak Armenian, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Finnish?

Are we gonna become a Switzerland now? Posting 4-5 language in every road signs?

[wctriumph]

This stuff makes my head hurt. I'm going back to work.

[muddywings]

I'm going to throw caution to the wind here and say, 'good for them.'
Until this country figures out that we should have a 'nationally backed language' aka english, I applaud their lawsuit.
My personal opinion is that any citizen who doesn't speak english should sue anything and everything (it's the american way after all) until we figure out that for simplicity, efficiency and for emergency situations that we should pass legislation to formalize english as the national language of the USA.
When an earthquake hits CA (I pray a bit every day) is the national emergency broadcast system going to give instructions in every language?
I'm sick and tired of people dancing around that topic because we don't want to upset the non-english speakers.


please realize my logic and rational are bit out of spite!

[CO Hugh]

fire them and hire other cheaper illegals

[Ronin13]

How about this:

[dwalker460]

fire them and hire other cheaper illegals

That wont effin complain about learning damned english to perform the job for which they are paid money.
By definition, they are volunteers. The asked to work for this employer, which means that when you dont like it anymore, tough shit, deal with it or find a new job.

A serious issue in this country is the idea of labor rights. As an employer, I offer you X amount of money to do X job. If you agree, cool I pay you for performing said labors. If, for some reason you no longer feel satisfied with the job or the salary, suck it up or find a new damned job. But not here in America. No Sir! What you do is sue the company you are working for to get your way. After which you no longer need to work because of the unjust settlement you have recieved, while the company who gave you employment struggles to keep afloat and employee other people who actually do want to work there.

[bgouker]

+1