This morning's Washington Post reports on a bill introduced by Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (Far Right Wing "R") that would "allow a boss to fire employees who don't speak English in the workplace." According to Cooch, "The point here isn't to be mean; the point is to allow circumstances to give employers their own ability to hire and fire people who may not speak English." To the contrary, Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax) says "This is the most mean-spirited piece of legislation I have seen in my 30 years down here."
Who do you agree with, Cooch or Saslaw? The comments section at the Washington Post is pretty scathing, and keep in mind that comments there tend to be strongly anti-illegal-immigrant. For instance:
I am completely against illegal immigration, but this is one of the dumbest bills that I have ever heard of. Cuccinelli, you stupid dope, quit wasting my tax dollars and do something useful like fixing our transportation problems. Maybe we need a law that allows voters to fire stupid legislators who waste our money on worthless ideas.
Hey, now THAT'S an idea! :)
Personally, I don't understand why Cooch's law is needed, given that Virginia already has among the most pro-corporate, anti-worker laws in the nation. Can't employers pretty much fire employees right now for just about any reason? Isn't the issue whether or not you can do the job you were hired to do? For instance, someone who doesn't speak English would obviously not be a good fit for a job teaching English, but what about flipping burgers, pounding nails, cutting grass, packing meat, stuff like that? Can someone please explain why Cooch's bill is not, as Dick Saslaw says, "The most mean-spirited piece of legislation I have seen?"
This Bill, if passed, would never get passed the courts.
Kaine wont sign it, and republicans will continue to disapear
The real purpose of the bill is to prevent people who can't or refuse to speak English in direct violation of company policy from applying for unemployment benefits once they are terminated
http://www.richmondsunlight.co...
An individual shall be disqualified for benefits upon separation from the last employing unit for whom he has worked 30 days or 240 hours or from any subsequent employing unit:
5) An employee's inability or refusal to speak English at the workplace, in violation of a known policy of the employer that requires employees to speak only English at the workplace. The Commission may consider evidence of mitigating circumstances in determining whether misconduct occurred.
Maybe its naivete keeping you from seeing the quite obvious implications of this bill. But its quite obvious that this is one of the most despicable, hateful, xenophobic pieces of legislation I've ever seen. And again, the goal is quite obviously appears to be to marginalize and force out of society recent immigrants, legal and otherwise, or anyone else wants to retain a piece of their particular culture. Its hateful and despicable, especially considering the number of foreign-born individuals in Fairfax County.
So if they are in an at-will state, they can fire them for not speaking English (or any reason for that matter). And to add insult to injury, they can be denied unemployment benefits which they paid for.
Dr. Evil would approve.
The goal should be to improve communications. If two people communicate better in another language, I don't see the problem in using their native language to communicate as long as it isn't deliberately excluding another person from the conversation who doesn't speak the language. But this is really just an issue of courtesy.
What I think everyone should know is that in an at will state like Florida is (I don't know if Virginia is - you tell me) employers don't need a reason to fire people. They can do it just to be mean if they so desire. I don't think language is a protected status (like race, religion, etc) so they can probably currently get away with this.
In actuality, employers in Florida can fire you because you are homosexual, black, Muslim, handicap, or whatever reason they want. They just can't tell you why they are firing you if it is a protected reason. It would be quite a legal challenge to prove that you were discriminated against. Thank the Republicans and Chamber of Commerce for this.
And to repeat, if we had a strong union/labor presence here we wouldn't even be discussing this ridiculous bill.
But it's not going to pass. The Senate will shoot it down and I'm pretty sure if it made it to Kaine's desk he would veto it. I hope so anyway.
You would be surpised how many bills get written because one person asks someone too
Problem #1-Impossible legal standard:
What defines a reasonable legal standard for being able to speak English? Fluency? Prociency? Competency? Able to make oneself understood? There are people I know who are born and raised in this country who speak in such a manner that they cause me to wonder if they really can speak English, yet they are deemed to be able to. What standard defining english speaking competency is so exact that it can meet a court challenge?
Problem #2-Is this bill really needed?
If they don't speak English, and they need to be able to speak English to do their job, don't hire them.
If they are doing their job despite being unable to be able to speak English, why fire them?
If they are unable to do their jobs (even if as a result of being unable to speak English, then they can be terminated for cause.
This is exactly what Ben Tribbett predicted...depending on 2011 redistricting, Cuccinelli either goes into a seat he Democratic majority seat he cannot win (primarily Fairfax County) OR into a seat that picks up significant GOP areas in Western PWCo that will be much easier for him to win. Either way he gets more latitude to push legislation like this...In the first redistricting instance he knows he is done so he comes out swinging; in the second he knows he won't be beaten, so he comes out swinging.
Wouldn't it be more effective for the business community and state/local governments to offer more programs for immigrants to learn English and better acclimate them rather than proposing alienating and xenophobic legislation?
I probably butchered that, but was aiming for the comedic value ;-)