$1.5 Million to Workers Ordered to Use English

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Friday that a company that once owned a Colorado casino agreed to pay $1.5 million to Spanish-speaking employees in the housekeeping department who were forced to speak English.

“This sends a strong message to employers ... that we expect companies to think long and hard before implementing rules that may discriminate against those who speak languages other than English,” the EEOC’s Denver district office Director Francisco Flores told reporters.

The employees said that in 1998 management at the Colorado Central Station Casino, which was then owned by Anchor Coin, issued an English-only order, preventing employees from speaking Spanish while working and when they were at lunch. The head of human resources issued the order without the knowledge of the owners, the EEOC said.

The reason given for the English-only directive was that an employee thought other employees were talking about her in Spanish.

Debra Castillo, the housekeeping supervisor who was ordered to carry out the rule, said she told management it was unfair. “They hired these people knowing they didn’t speak English,” she said.

She was fired several days later. Other employees were fired or left. There were 11 original plaintiffs and about 30 in all.

A little under $1.2 million will go to the original 11 plaintiffs, and the EEOC will collect the rest on behalf of the other plaintiffs, said David Fine, an attorney for the casino workers.

The case was brought under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Fine said while an English-only rule can be justified in certain cases for security or safety, that was not the case with the housekeepers.

Anchor Coin denied the allegation in the settlement, and the new owner of the casino has done away with the rule.