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In light of California’s diverse workforce, many companies have employees with little or no English proficiency. Where a significant portion of the workforce speaks a language other than English, employers should address translation obligations. For example, if ten percent of the workforce or more does not speak English, California requires employers to post the notice of Pregnancy Disability Rights in an employee’s primary language. Similarly, federal law requires translation of the Family Medical Leave Act.
No state or federal law expressly requires an employer to translate its own handbook or personnel policies. Nonetheless, because compliance with many workplace laws requires effective communication with employees, many laws implicitly require such translations.
The Fair Employment and Housing Act, for example, requires an employer to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment. Where the workforce is non English-speaking, distribution of an English anti-harassment policy is not likely to prove an effective or reasonable means of preventing harassment. The Fair Employment and Housing Act also requires employers to interact in “good faith” with an employee who seeks accommodation of a disability. An employer who foregoes this obligation because the employee cannot speak English will not be able to establish the requisite good faith.
Cook Brown has assisted employers in a variety of industries to comply with the express, as well as the implicit, mandates arising in connection with a multilingual workforce.