ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

On the Job

Privacy in the Workplace

Can employers require employees to speak only English while at work?

The EEOC has interpreted Title VII to prohibit the promulgation of an English-only rule unless it can be justified by business necessity. Requiring employees to speak only English may have an adverse impact on persons of certain ethnic or national origin. Thus, an employer may be able to justify an English-only rule when its employees are dealing with customers but could not enforce such a rule in the employee lunchroom.