Delano Regional accused of discrimination
| Thursday, Aug 19 2010 05:36 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Aug 19 2010 05:36 PM
The federal government filed a lawsuit this week accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of prohibiting Filipino employees from speaking Tagalog even though it allowed the use of other non-English languages.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fresno on behalf of more than 30 Filipino employees, claims that the staffers were harassed because of their national origin.
It says the workers were subjected to humiliation, intimidation, heightened security and threats of surveillance, as well as unwelcome taunting and hostile remarks from co-workers and supervisors.
"It's about singling out a certain group of people," said the director of the EEOC's Fresno office, Melissa Barrios.
Although she had not seen the formal charges, the medical center's chief nursing officer, Sherri Johnson, said Thursday that she had not witnessed any such discrimination by hospital staff.
Johnson said the hospital has a policy requiring that employees speak only English in patient care areas unless the patient speaks another language.
"We've never singled out any one culture," she said.
"If we have a Filipino patient who speaks Tagalog, and the nurse speaks that language, of course we would encourage that communication," Johnson said. She added that employees may speak in their native languages in break rooms and other areas outside of patient care.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against future discrimination, as well as revision of certain policies and practices. It further requests unspecified financial compensation for the employees.
The medical center is owned by the nonprofit Central California Foundation for Health, which also was named in the suit.
