EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. SYNCHRO-START PRODUCTS, INC., Defendant., 29 F. Supp. 2d 911

Summary

Although some of its employees spoke little or no English, defendant enforced a new rule requiring its employees to speak only English during working hours. Claiming that defendant's conduct was an intentional unlawful employment practice on the basis of its employees' national origins, plaintiff, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, brought a class action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, 42 U.S.C.S. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17 (Title VII). Although plaintiff later filed an amended complaint, the court considered and dismissed defendant's motion to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The court ruled that because any English-only rule inarguably impacted people of some national origins (those from non-English speaking countries) much more heavily than others, it was easy to imagine a set of facts consistent with plaintiff's allegations that would entitle plaintiff to relief, and that alone enabled plaintiff to withstand defendant's motion to dismiss. The ...