Specifically, SB 2753 passed in the Tennessee Senate 6/3/2010 states that it is not an act of discrimination for an employer to require employees to speak English only. The bill will now be sent to the governor for his signature. Separate measures requiring driver's license exams to be offered in English only have failed to pass.
The English only bill allows only certain employers to require employees to speak English. The English requirement must be a "business or safe workplace necessity." These business necessities include communicating with supervisors and customers, which can be expanded and interpreted to include a vast number of employers.
The Tennessee English only bill does not change any current practices. This bill only specifies that the act of Tennessee employers requiring English is not an act of discrimination and states that employers cannot limit the language of an employee during break times or when the employee is conversing with another employee.
The bill is largely unnecessary because Tennessee is an employment-at-will state, which means that a Tennessee employer can fire any employee at any time for any or even no reason. The right to fire employees for any reason encompasses the right to hire employees, or not hire as the case may be, for any reason other that race, sex, or religion as required by the federal government. Language is not protected by the Constitution or deemed a discriminatory factor by the federal government.
A prospective employee would obviously give away the fact that he cannot speak the language in an interview, so a non-English speaking individual would not succeed in obtaining a position in which English was necessary. This is not discrimination, and never was discrimination even before this bill was proposed.
Legal immigrants make the effort to assimilate, which includes learning the dominate language. Proponents of the bill hope that this, with the other illegal immigration bills being considered, will make settling in Tennessee a little more difficult for illegal immigrants. Opponents argue that this bill opens the door to other English-only legislation.
Comments
Riiiight, only legal immigrants learn English.
Hmm, so under SB2753 it would be illegal for a person who's primary language is Spanish to conduct any business transaction (for an employer who falls within the legal descriptions) with a customer (say even ordering a meal at Wendy's) who's primary language is also Spanish, in any language but English. In essence, the result of the bill is to force (by law) the employee to speak to the customer in English, and to have the customers forced (defacto) to only speak English as well, even though it would be easier on everyone for the conversation to be held in Spanish. Stay classy TN!
@Liberationdemonology
Don't be retarded. Try reading the entire news article; or, if you did, then you clearly don't understand it.
Right...its the illegals that usually know english before they cross the border...lol....After Living in Vegas and San Diego.....you learn that real quick!
@Liberationdemonology, your a moron! This is an English speaking country first and foremost. Always has been always will be. You wanna live here, speak the fricking language. Visiting is just fine (no job hunting there). When in Rome, do as the Romans do, otherwise shut the heck up and move to whatever language speaking country you want.
The author goofed. In a right-to-work state, the job belongs to the employee, rather than the employer. It is in at-will states that employers have full discretion over hiring and firing.
And Liberationdemonology, you are indeed a moron. Read the damned bill.
The only people who do not want immigrants to learn English are those who like to exploit them and keep them in low paying menial jobs. They are the ones who hire them and pay under the table providing no benefits...
Are the folks from TN stupid? Don't they realize that the politicians who crafted this bill is wasting tax payer money?
The bill is largely unnecessary because Tennessee is a Right to Work state, which means that a Tennessee employer can fire any employee at any time for any or even no reason. The right to fire employees for any reason encompasses the right to hire employees, or not hire as the case may be, for any reason other that race, sex, or religion as required by the federal government. Language is not protected by the Constitution or deemed a discriminatory factor by the federal government.
WHATTA BUNCH OF MORONS!
David- You are right. Thank you. Article has been corrected. TN is a right to work state in regard to unions, an at-will state in relation to the employer/ employee agreement.
i think it is discriminatory for an employer to REQUIRE spanish! so how is it ok for them to require spanish but not require english... yah, good question.
KUDOS FOR TN! I am so happy to see other States taking control of their laws. I support Arizona in their duplication of the federal law on illegal aliens, adjusting it for the State level, and the carrying of concealed firearms & other weapons in most places without a permit for adults over 21 years of age. I also support MT, ID, WY, UT, AZ, SD, and of course TN for passing the Firearms Freedom Act.
I am a Tennessean, and pray that our leaders in Nashville keep it up. Being an English only State would be awesome! It would not impeded anyone speaking other languages in any personal or private setting. Thus, such would not keep my family from speaking Gaidhlig in our own home.
lauren stephens says:
//i think it is discriminatory for an employer to REQUIRE spanish! so how is it ok for them to require spanish but not require english... yah, good question.//
And your argument is anti right-to-work-state. Spanish-speaking businesses can do as they please and require you to speak Spanish or not hire you. Now on the other hand, if the state passed a non-discrimination clause to prevent corporations to hire ONLY Hispanic-speaking employees ONLY, then RTW would not be viable.
Liberationdemonology says:
//Hmm, so under SB2753 it would be illegal for a person who's primary language is Spanish to conduct any business transaction (for an employer who falls within the legal descriptions) with a customer (say even ordering a meal at Wendy's) who's primary language is also Spanish, in any language but English. In essence, the result of the bill is to force (by law) the employee to speak to the customer in English, and to have the customers forced (defacto) to only speak English as well, even though it would be easier on everyone for the conversation to be held in Spanish. Stay classy TN!//
They are correct. But being that it's a right-to-work-state, there was no reason for the law...except to spend more money to create laws that are unnecessary. So much for being fiscally consrvative
English is the language of the United States and its the current lingua franca of international business, science, technology and aviation.
So if english is not to be the lingua franca of the education in the United States on what basis to we chose from the alternatives. A partial list is given below.
Afrikaans,Berber,Fanagalo,Fula,Hausa,Krio,Manding,Sango,Swahili,Twi,Wolof,Yoruba,Akkadian,Arabic,Aramaic,Azeri,Bengali,Chinese,Hebrew,Hindi-Urdu,Malay-Indonesian,Nepali,Persian,Sanskrit,Tamil,Telugu,English,French,German,Greek and Latin,Italian,Polish, Portuguese,Russian, Serbo-Croatian,Spanish,Yiddish,Guinea-Bissau Creole,Tok Pisin
i see ads on craigslist all the time but for bilingual only....only 1/3 of the time do they even mention spanish as the second language they require. ive gotten jobs off craigslist and found only temp-jobs working for slavedrivers. i'll admit my education is lacking,however to be denied a job because i wont fit in{speaking english} that pays cash under the table to avoid irs is nothing short of treason to a son of a great war veteran.
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