Customer Heaping Racist Abuse On Employees? Employer Must Stop It Or Risk Suit

The video of the guy heaping abuse on a restaurant's employees for speaking Spanish that went viral made me wonder: what did the restaurant do after this? A company's duty to keep the workplace free of national origin and immigration status harassment extends to protecting its employees from customer abuse and discrimination.

The most common case comes when a customer demands the company engage in discrimination by not assigning people of a particular race or national origin to them. An example would be a hospital patient refusing to be treated by people of a particular race.

But when a customer heaps discriminatory abuse on employees, it is the employer's duty to keep the workplace free of discrimination. The employer now knows about this customer's propensity to discriminate. It now must take prompt action to correct the situation.

But what can an employer do to stop a racist customer? Here are some actions that can be taken in this situation, and I hope the employer did at least some of this:

• Remove the customer: In this case, the manager was one of those being subjected to abuse. Still, the manager would be within her rights to ask the customer to leave and call the police if he refused.
• Ban the customer: Let's say management didn't find out about the situation until after the case. The customer could be banned from the restaurant. In the case of a company where the customer represents a large chunk of sales, it's tempting to let it pass. But the company could be liable for the customer's bad behavior.
• Make sure the customer is accompanied at all times: If the customer is one that is too big to ban, then make sure someone in management is assigned to be with that person at all times they have contact with employees so they can shut down any bad behavior. Let the customer know that further bad behavior will result in banning. Of course, that may be an empty threat if the customer is a major one. Still, the company must stop the bad behavior, even if it means getting rid of an otherwise good customer.

Here's what the company absolutely cannot do:

• Accede to customer wishes: The company cannot allow a customer to demand it engage in discrimination. The answer to the customer who wants only people of a particular race, national origin or religion to deal with them must be a resounding no.
• Retaliate against the employee/victim: The employer must not deal with the problem by firing the employee, assigning them to a less-desirable position, or otherwise retaliating against them for being a victim of discrimination.

If a customer is engaging in this kind of behavior, report it to HR or someone in management. If your employer allows customers to engage in discrimination, sexual harassment, or discriminatory harassment, or retaliates against you for reporting it, contact an employee-side employment lawyer in your state to discuss your rights.

Those Anti-Muslim Rants Are Going To Get You Sued

In light of the attacks in Paris and the end of Jihadi John, I'm guessing there will be lots of workplace cooler talk about Muslims and Middle Easterners in the news. Inevitably, someone will go on a rant about Muslims. That person will get you sued unless you shut them down speedy quick.

A recent example is a lawsuit filed after a Muslim employee was taunted by coworkers with cries of, "Allahu Akbar" when he was on the phone and setting his password as, "BinLaden1." The coworkers claim it was all in good fun. Not surprisingly, the Muslim employee was not amused.

So yes, it is sometimes tempting in anger over a big news story to vent frustrations on someone who looks or sounds different. I've met people from the West Indies, India, and even South America who looked to coworkers or customers slightly Middle Eastern and who were subjected to horrid treatment: name calling, offensive cartoons, moving them to the back of the workplace so customers won't see them, pranks. Calling a dark-skinned person a terrorist, asking them if they are going to cut off your head, or blaming them for ISIS is stupid. It's also illegal. So is refusing to hire an applicant who wears a hijab, bowing to customer preferences not to deal with a Muslim employee, and firing an employee when you find out that they don't hold your religious beliefs.

To HR people, I would urge you to shut down any such activities immediately. You may not be popular, but you might just save the company from a lawsuit. You might remind offenders that all Muslims are not any more responsible for the attacks in Paris than all Americans are responsible for the actions of Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber).

To Muslims and Middle Easterners (and people who "look" Muslim) going to work this week, don't despair. Take good notes of any incidents, with dates, locations, and witnesses. Print out any offensive emails or written materials. Then report it, in writing, to HR. Call it, "Formal Complaint Of Religious/National Origin Harassment." Lay out how you have been treated differently than non-Middle Eastern/non-Muslim employees (or Anglos, etc.) and any harassment you encountered due to your national origin and/or religion.

If they won't shut it down, contact EEOC or an employment lawyer in your state. You have the right to work in a place free of religious and national origin-based harassment.

Can My Employer Ban Me From Speaking Spanish To Co-Workers?

An AOL Jobs reader asked:

Good afternoon, I have a question. I was just told by my supervisor that I cannot speak Spanish to my coworkers in our department. She states that some other non-Spanish speaking workers claim it makes them uncomfortable. I am asked to assist Spanish-speaking customers with no additional pay, but this is not a concern. I will certainly comply with this request, but I am not sure if it is fair or even legal. I hope you can clarify this for me. Thank you for your assistance.

I'm always surprised how many employers try to impose English-only policies or ban speaking a particular language when there are so few circumstances where such a policy would be legal. Most English-only policies at work violate the laws against national origin discrimination.

Take a look at my article Can My Employer Ban Me From Speaking Spanish To Co-Workers? to find out more about English-only policies in the workplace.

Can My Employer Make Me Speak English, Even On Breaks?

I got this excellent question from flower on Ask A Manager recently:

Hi, I have a question about languages. I work in the shop as a sales assistance. I am from other country and there are working 5 more persons from the same country as me. So about 2 month ago my boss told for us that we can not speak in our language at all times even there are no customers around. Can they do that?

Thanks for asking, flower! This comes up a lot in areas, like South Florida where I live, that have a large immigrant population. Not surprisingly, EEOC has a section in its compliance manual addressing this specific issue because it is a common problem.

In general, English-only rules in the workplace are allowed if they are enacted for non-discriminatory reasons. Examples of good reasons to have English-only rules would be because customers, supervisors and coworkers speak only English; for workplace safety reasons such as emergencies where everyone needs to understand; to promote efficiency for cooperative assignments; and to allow supervisors who speak only English to monitor the employees’ communications with customers.

Examples of illegal policies would be:

• Prohibiting non-English speaking on breaks
• Subjecting speakers of foreign languages to excess scrutiny
• Prohibiting one particular foreign language from being spoken
• Requiring English-only if coworkers and customers speak multiple languages

Employers also must look at alternatives to English-only rules that might have less of a discriminatory impact. For instance, if an employee reports that two coworkers made derogatory comments about a customer in Sanskrit, disciplining the two employees would be the way to deal with the issue rather than an all-out ban on foreign languages.

Donna’s tips:

a. If your employer implements an English-only policy, the biggest question is why they did it. If they just don’t like hearing Spanish all day, too bad. That’s illegal. If there have been safety issues where an employee called out key instructions in Spanish and someone was hurt because they didn’t understand, then the employer might have a legitimate reason for the rule.

b. Sometimes having a few coworkers speaking a foreign language causes problems with other employees. Morale problems may develop as people think they’re being talked about behind their backs. This might also justify an English-only rule.

c. If you think your employer’s English-only rule discriminates against you based on national origin, it might be time to contact an employment lawyer, make a complaint of national origin discrimination with HR, or file a charge of discrimination with EEOC.

I’d love to hear from you on this. Does your employer have an English-only rule? Does it work or cause problems? If you’re an employer or management-side lawyer, have you ever implemented an English-only policy? Why did you think it was necessary? In general, do you think English-only policies should be banned or should employers be allowed to make any rules they want?