Workforce Language Services

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Several Seminole County school cafeteria workers have been told speaking Spanish made their workplace more dangerous. The workers were re-assigned following complaints that they used their native language on the job.Seminole County school district’s risk manager said it has an English-only policy in the kitchens because a lot of workers are suffering kitchen burns. If someone yells “cuidado,” which means “be careful” in Spanish, others might not understand.

Rather than educate and engage school cafeteria workers, this county’s school district chose to simply re-assign the Spanish-speaking offenders.  By taking a hard-line approach to safety in the cafeteria, the district certainly missed an opportunity for education and increased communication across cultures. 

If safety was such a deep concern, how hard would it have been for the employer to give a brief lesson on safety warnings in English and Spanish so that both groups could learn from the incident?  But the school district’s reassignment of the Spanish-speaking staff speaks more to its lack of cultural sensitivity than to its desire to create a safe working environment. 

To read the brief article, click here.