Trial of Nurse Challenging English-Only Policy Opens

A Filipino nurse was reprimanded and demoted for speaking her native language while on the job at a Pomona hospital, her attorneys alleged Thursday as trial opened in a potentially precedent-setting discrimination case.

The case brought by Adelaida Dimaranan could result in a sweeping ruling on English-only policies in the workplace, the plaintiff’s attorneys said. Attorneys for the hospital countered that Dimaranan was demoted because she was a poor supervisor and that the hospital has never had an English-only policy.

At issue is whether a policy prohibiting employees from speaking in their native language under circumstances other than when business purposes require English violates the federal Civil Rights Act and fair employment guidelines, the nurse’s lawyers said.