Calif. court to hear 'no-Tagalog' discrimination case in Jan 2011
The hearing of a civil rights suit filed by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (USEEOC) on behalf of 34 Filipino hospital workers in southern California who were allegedly discriminated against for being Filipino and prevented from speaking their language in the workplace is set for Jan. 18 next year. Court records showed that the 34 were accusing their employers, the Central California Foundation for Health (CCFH) and the Delano Regional Medical Center (DRMC) of discriminating against them by banning Tagalog or Filipino speech, while allowing Latino hospital workers to speak Spanish and Indian employees to speak Hindi. In their suit filed Aug. 18 before Judge Jennifer L. Thurston of the Eastern District Court of California in Bakersfield, Kern County, the Filipinos claimed that undergoing such ethnic discrimination affected their mental wellbeing and poisoned their work environment. In a 12-page complaint, the 34 claimed that the CCFH and DRMC did not only single out Filipinos as a group in imposing its language policy, but that the employers had also subjected them since August 2006 to âdisparate treatment in the terms, conditions and privileges of their employment." In its complaint letter, the USEEOC noted that the 34 had been subjected to humiliation in meetings where they were berated, intimidated and threatened. The complainants were identified as:
- Rebecca Aguinaldo,
- Pacita Agustin,
- Maria Busto,
- Herminia Cariño,
- Nora Casimiro,
- Hilda Ducusin,
- Consolacion Galafate,
- Luz Gallegos,
- Wilma Lamug,
- Vemlis Pagsuberon,
- Priscilla Penalosa,
- Federico Quiniones,
- Sixto Ramos,
- Vilma Tutop,
- Romeo Villamor,
- Ferdinand Baraceros,
- Ednalyn Arciaga,
- Sol Manaois,
- Maribelle Manankil,
- Evangeline Picato,
- Arsenia Ringor,
- Michelle Cabbab,
- Angelita Baligad,
- Patricia Serafica,
- Erlinda Camtuya,
- Tomasa Gumallaoi,
- Manuela Aninion,
- Anafe Escorpiso,
- Elnora Cayme,
- Charito Bilog,
- Elizabeth Batchar,
- Joselito Munoz,
- Belen Cabbab, and
- Calixto Lamugand.