The EEOC has stated that rules requiring employees to speak only English in the workplace violate the law unless the employer can show that they are justified by business necessity. A rule requiring employees to speak only English in the workplace at all times, including breaks and lunch time, will rarely be justified.
Can I be asked not to speak my native language at work or to speak English only?
A rule requiring employees to speak only English at all times on the job can violate the law, if it has been adopted for a discriminatory reason or if, is not uniformly enforced, or if it is not necessary for conducting business
English only in class rooms
Me and my friend were speaking Bengali in class and got shouted at. The teacher told us to speak English only. Is that allowed? I got mad. So I stayed num but on Monday I am going to tell the head teacher.
The answer, like the answer to so many legal questions, is: “it depends.” English-only policies are unlawful if adopted for a discriminatory purpose or if applied to one minority group but not another. In addition, even if an English-only policy is adopted for nondiscriminatory reasons and applied uniformly, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and some courts take the position that such rules burden national origin minorities because they prevent many members of these groups from speaking the language in which they are best able to communicate. According to this view, English-only rules may only be justified by “business necessity.” While some courts have adopted a less stringent standard, the safe approach for employers is to either refrain from adopting an English-only policy, or ensure that it is justified by business necessity.
According to the EEOC, the following are some situations in which business necessity would justify an English-only rule:
For communications with customers, coworkers, or supervisors who only speak EnglishIn emergencies or other situations in which workers must speak a common language to promote safetyFor cooperative work assignments in which the English-only rule is needed to promote efficiencyTo enable a supervisor who only speaks English to monitor the performance of an employee whose job duties require communication with coworkers or customers
Even if justified by business necessity in these situations, an English-only policy should not be applied to casual conversations between employees when they are not performing job duties.
Source: Forbes.com
This last paragraph proves that if me and my friend were speaking together in Bengali during a normal conversation in class we can not get told of. This would be seen as discrimination if we did get shouted at.
