Christine:  So, English language. As I said at the start, Northern Ireland is a much more diverse place than it was back in 1998 when Legal-Island was set up. So, we are dealing with different cultures, different backgrounds, and different languages in the workplace. Is it appropriate to ask employees to all speak English in work? Should it be done, or are there pitfalls there?

Seamus:  Well, I think it very much depends. The first point is that there is protection for employees under the discrimination order here in Northern Ireland. So, there is protection for employees. And I think the likelihood is that if you say to an employee who English is not their first language, "When you're in work, you must only speak English", there's a real risk that that's going to be indirect discrimination.

It may also be indirect discrimination and it could also be considered harassment as well. So, there is a risk. I think that's the first point that the employer needs to think about.

The other side of it as well, though, that you need to consider is, "Is there a proper business justification for such a request?" It could be that if you're a certain industry, certain business, the requirement is that there is a communication in English.

So, just to sort of jump on it, there's a good case that's by way of example of this. It's a 2015 Employment Appeal Tribunal case from England. The title of the case is Kelly v Covance Laboratories Ltd. And what we have is a native Russian speaker who claims direct discrimination and harassment because she was told that she was not to speak in Russian whilst at work.

Now, the basics are that the employer, Covance, was an animal testing facility, and they had been targeted by militant animal rights activists and they'd actually infiltrated the workforce. And the employer was suspicious of Miss Kelly because they were concerned that she was there as part of that agenda.

The specific instruction to her was that, "You're not to speak anything other than English. No Russian whilst you're in work". And she naturally then raises concerns and claims that this is direct discrimination.

It gets to the employment tribunal, and the finding of the employment tribunal is interesting because what the employer said was, "Well, actually, this wasn't an issue to do with her race at all. This was a security issue. This was a health and safety issue. We had concerns that if she was communicating in Russian, she might have been working on an agenda in relation to the animal activist side of things. We had genuine suspicions around that, and therefore, we could justify the potential of direct discrimination and harassment by the fact that we had a genuine security issue".

And ultimately, the tribunal held that there wasn't any discrimination and that the health and safety reasons were justified.

There are interesting comments about respect at work and people feeling trusted, safe, and included whilst in their workplace. But it's interesting. I think it does highlight the aspect of the justification around why you would ask for it. And I think that specifically a tribunal will very much want to know about that. You can imagine that the focus of the case will be on, "What's the justification, if you have it?"

But I mean, it does happen. I was in a Caffè Nero recently. I don't know where the two individuals are from, but there were two ladies. I was getting a coffee and they were communicating in their natural language. They were laughing and joking. And a couple of times they looked at me and I got a bit paranoid and thought, "Oh, god. Are they talking about me?" And then I told myself to wise up and I went on with my day, and that was that.

But when I saw the question, it reminded me of that. And I suppose there are elements of certain businesses, certain industry, where you will have a requirement to speak in English, but it doesn't mean that you can't have two employees talking in another language. You can just imagine the kind of worms that would open up if there was some form of direction that "English only" and that's it.

And just another aspect around health and safety and making sure that interpreters are available if you're putting instructions up. Maybe not only are they in writing and different languages, but around health and safety, sometimes you'll see drawings up showing people how to bend and stoop when they're picking things up. And the purpose of that is that it's open communication.

Christine:  Brilliant. Thanks, Seamus. I know we're rattling through this, folks, but I'm mindful of the time. So, I suppose my takeaways really on that particular part of the webinar is whether you can insist on English being spoken is really going to be circumstantial. There may be times where it's completely inappropriate or it is fine in certain circumstances, in certain workplaces, I suppose.

And really, what I'm taking away from this is a total ban on other languages or insisting that English is always spoken is always unnecessary, and is likely to be discriminatory. So, don't go there, I suppose, is the takeaway.

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