Employee fired for speaking Chinese at work (legal, institutes)

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by Sevenelements

In what country is it ok to fire someone for speaking Chinese? Not america. Please don't act like that was any sort of grounds for insubordination. He's gonna win his lawsuit, that I can guarantee.

Tell me where in the Texas labor law he has any grounds for his lawsuit? There isn't any, so he's got no chance.

There's fact and there's opinion, fortunately facts will drive how far he will get with this case. Unfortunately, it's not where he thinks it will!

And to answer your first question, basically in Texas it IS OK to fire someone for speaking Chinese, especially after being warned not to! See my previous post about what 'At Will' employment means.

Sounds like this guy disregarded what he was told by a supervisor and company policy, which IS grounds for dismissal!

And I'll take that bet, since you think it's a "guarantee!" Do you honestly think a Texas jury is going to side with this guy?!?

[zhugeliang1]

If I were a jury I would side with the guy. The supervisor would have to document when and where the guy was speaking Chinese and I bet he wouldn't even have that documentation.

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

If I were a jury I would side with the guy. The supervisor would have to document when and where the guy was speaking Chinese and I bet he wouldn't even have that documentation.

It was documented in his performance evaluation, which is all that is needed.

Actually, even that isn't required because by law his employer doesn't have to give a reason for the termination.

And hopefully if you were on the jury, you would make a determination based on the fact and the law, and not opinion!

[TrapperL]

Considering some of the extremely sensitive materials and top secret stuff that SwRI deals with on a daily basis, I can see where they would want every employee to speak the same language, if for no other reason than security. Just what a research center needs, a bunch of folks speaking in all kinds of languages and upper management having no clue what's being said like "Hey Chang, how ya gonna get this secret formula back to the fatherland?" Robert Oppenheimer had the Russians put spys inside the Manhattan Project without his knowledge until it was too late. That's where the Ruskies got their atomic weapons from so the stealing of information is paramount these days. Personally, I probably would have had the guy arrested/investigated by the FBI to see if there was any intelligence going on. Think it can't happen? Neither did Robert Oppenheimer and see where that got us.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Considering some of the extremely sensitive materials and top secret stuff that SwRI deals with on a daily basis, I can see where they would want every employee to speak the same language, if for no other reason than security. Just what a research center needs, a bunch of folks speaking in all kinds of languages and upper management having no clue what's being said like "Hey Chang, how ya gonna get this secret formula back to the fatherland?"

I don't know this guy's citizen or green card status, but I do know that to be involved in certain high level work at SwRI, one needs to be a US citizen, those who are not are asked to step out during certain discussions. He could be a naturalized citizen so this would not be relevant, just throwing it out there.

FTR - there *are* plenty of languages spoken amongst SwRI employees, during the work day, in the labs. AFAIK it's not an institute policy to speak only English on campus (it is in certain meetings, like those requiring certain status but not as a general rule). It may however, be an issue in a particular department and may be up to the supervisor.

But, like I said before, if this guy's science was so integral to the work, it wouldn't have mattered what language he was speaking. Hence, I suspect there was a lot more going on.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

If I were a jury I would side with the guy. The supervisor would have to document when and where the guy was speaking Chinese and I bet he wouldn't even have that documentation.

If documentation was required I'll bet he has it.
When I worked for the state, state employees could not be fired so easily. One had to have reams of documentation. You can bet every supervisor was very diligent at documenting.

Bottom line, there is more to this story.

[zhugeliang1]

I'm almost positive that security clearances are required before working at Southwest Research. So I don't know how "spies" could get in there.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

I'm almost positive that security clearances are required before working at Southwest Research. So I don't know how "spies" could get in there.

Not for all employees. And it depends upon the division and the particular projects.

[&heart]

There's always two sides to the story. But as far as I know, he disobeyed his employer by speaking something he was told not to speak. Why did he do it anyway?

I don't think I would disobey a boss or anybody of higher position at my workplace.

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

Would this happen for Spanish speaking at work here in San Antonio?


Engineer claims he was fired for speaking Chinese - San Antonio Express-News

I also see no reason why it was necessary to mention Spanish but I agree with you that this does seem wrong, based on the couple of articles I read it seems very likely that this person just had a rotten supervisor, ya you find them in all places even the really nice ones. Hopefully the gentleman who was seemingly discriminated against gets reinstated.

@ m2 Doubtful if this goes to court but if it does it is equally doubtful that Texas being an "At Will" state would even be touched upon. Now if he was simply going to the labor board to complain then that would likely play out.

Useless trivia fact: the monkeys there do like to fling their waste at you, ewww