Step out : prevent discrimination

Restaurant chain Ribs & Burgers says it’s investigating a memo shared to staff which described speaking languages other than English at work as “disgusting” and threatened disciplinary action for anyone doing so.

In the correspondence addressed to “teams”, a senior NSW company representative said he had the “unfortunate task” of raising the issue after four reports were received in different restaurants.  

The memo continued by labelling the speaking of other languages by staff as “disgusting” and “disrespectful”, and that it “speaks completely against our Seagrass Culture of #togetherness”.

“BE WARNED: NATIVE LANGUAGE SPEAKING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ANYMORE,” it said while calling on managers to “stamp this out” and “treat occurrences of this with immediate disciplinary action.” 

The nature of the “disciplinary action” was not explained and the memo was signed off with the words, “ZERO TOLERANCE”. 

According to Fair Work Australia, unlawful work discrimination is defined as when an employer “takes adverse action” against an employee based on race, colour, national extraction, or social origin among other criteria.

And while the “disciplinary action” is not defined in the memo, “adverse action” is defined by Fair Work as dismissing an employee and discriminating between one employee and other employees, among others.

Protection from discrimination at work

Please visit: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/protections-at-work/protection-from-discrimination-at-work