Supermarket Under Fire for English Only Rule

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Simon Bradwell, ONE News (Wellington), April 2, 2009

A Wellington supermarket is under fire for ordering workers to only speak English.

The Thorndon New World has told staff they may get a warning if they break the rule and a notice to staff posted on the supervisor’s kiosk spells out the English language policy.

But both customers and experts are unimpressed by the notice.

“It seems pretty amazing, in New Zealand in this day and age when we’re such a multi-cultural country, it’s the sort of thing you’d expect in New Zealand in the 1930s,” says employment law expert Peter Cullen.

The notice says foreign languages make customers and staff uncomfortable.

“It is certainly discriminatory and I would like this company to look again at its policies and remove that discrimination aspect from them,” says National Distribution Union president, Robert Reid.

Earlier in the week a sign was displayed telling staff if they were caught speaking a different language they may get a warning, however that notice has now come down.

Cullen says if a worker does get a warning for speaking a different language “they should challenge it”.

Under human rights commission guidelines, an English-only policy can only be justified for reasons such as health and safety.

Five years ago Auckland’s Fort Richard Laboratories brought in an English-only policy, saying it was a vital in the manufacture of medical supplies.

Fort Richard says they were allowed to retain the policy after discussions with the Human Rights Commission.

New World told ONE News the notices had been issued in error, staff wouldn’t get disciplined for speaking foreign languages and the matter was being investigated.

Original article

(Posted on April 14, 2009)

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Comments

1 — sbuffalonative wrote at 7:10 PM on April 14:

In a related story, a few years back, a local drug store which never needed the security guards they have today, put up bi-lingual signs warning about prosecution of shoplifters.

2 — Anonymous wrote at 11:16 PM on April 14:

Every Hispanic business in town proudly advertises ‘Spanish spoken here’.

3 — Say it wrote at 1:04 PM on April 15:

I wonder if stores in predominately non-white countries have any trouble respecting their language in the same way. Nah, only whitey, ever expected to be the sucker heart, fails to have the guts to defend his dominant language.

4 — Whiteplight wrote at 1:24 PM on April 15:

“Every Hispanic business in town proudly advertises ‘Spanish spoken here’.”

Posted by Anonymous at 11:16 PM on April 14

The Asian ones do too, and with a lot less attention.

5 — T Rexx wrote at 1:56 PM on April 15:

Why the sign? Just shake your head when they speak in some other language and say No Comprendo or I’m sorry I only speak English?

6 — tryclosan wrote at 4:22 PM on April 15:

A few years back when I was working in a large restaurant kitchen, I and a South American co-worker got into the habit of speaking Spanish, especially when we didn’t want our Jamaican co-workers to understand. The Jamaicans complained and the supervisor told us to stop.

I protested that the Jamaicans didn’t speak English either, and it was true: when they were talking about people they didn’t like (whites) they would speak in their native language, which is unrecognizable as English and incomprehensible to American English speakers. The Sri Lankans working there also talked in their native language. Only us whites seemed to have language requirements. Anyway, working with Jamaicans further reinforced my suspicions about widespread black disdain for whites.

7 — SKIP wrote at 4:49 PM on April 16:

I understand there are places in Florida where one must “press 2 for English”!!!

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