Pinoy nurses win discrimination case in US

MANILA, Philippines – Almost 70 Filipino hospital workers are set to receive a nearly $1 million settlement, in a case they filed against an “English only” rule in a hospital in California.

ABS-CBN North America News Bureau correspondent Yong Chavez said the Pinoy nurses involved were very happy with the outcome of the case.

“More than the money, they said it was their dignity that was restored. For the longest time, they really felt targeted at work,” Chavez reported on ANC’s Dateline Philippines.

Chavez said this is the largest settlement for a workplace language discrimination case in the West Coast, and the largest settlement for a workplace language discrimination case in the whole healthcare industry in the US.

“Because of the policy of the hospital in the English-only policy and the way they implemented it, it has become very difficult for these Filipino nurses to work in that hospital,” Chavez said.

The case involved 69 Filipino nurses employed at the Delano Regional Medical Center in California. They filed the case against the hospital in 2010, saying the hospital’s language policy violated the Civil Rights Act.

The nurses claimed they were banned from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino dialects in the hospital and subjected to harassment. –ABS-CBNnews.com