Posted on 05/06/2002 4:21:05 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
(WSVN) Zita Wilensky loves to help people. In fact she is a foster mother to kids with special needs.
Zita Wilensky, a victim of discrimination, says "Right now we have a little boy. We are in the process of adopting and he is learning delayed, but he is coming along great."
Professionally, Zita is not doing so well. She says, "I really do feel I was discriminated against and if I didn't I wouldn't be telling you."
Zita worked for Miami-Dade County for 16 years. The last two in the Domestic Violence Unit.
Her file is full of letters of praise, but she began to encounter one major problem.
She says, "I was referred to as the gringa, the Americana. Did they mean it in a polite way or a deragatory way? In some ways at times it was joking. But then it was like every single day and you know what? I have a name."
Zita was the only Anglo in the County Unit. All of her co-workers were Hispanic and she says they liked to play tricks on her.
She says, "My boss presented me with an envelope one day when the anthrax was going around and told me "come here could you smell this? This just came in the mail." Big joke in front of the whole department. Made me look like an idiot."
Then Zita was told she had to speak Spanish in the office. She was given 60 days to learn. After 30 days her boss disguised her voice and called her.
Zita says, "So she called pretending to be someone who didn't speak English. And when you could not communicate she fired you? Yes...that's how it happened."
According to a county document, Zita was fired for transferring the call to the clerk's office. Zita said she transferred it because she wanted what she thought was a Spanish speaking caller to talk to someone.
Either way, despite her protests, after 16 years with the county, Zita was fired and replaced by an Hispanic.
Now her question: can an Anglo be fired for not speaking Spanish on the job?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News Legal Expert, says "The Florida Constituion says that English is the official language of the government. So you can't fire someone simply because they don't speak Spanish and you can't fire them simply because they are Anglo. That's discrimination. That's illegal."
Howard says you cannot be discrimated against based upon national origin, religion, sex, and race. Such as blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, and on and on.
and howard says that includes the treatment employees like zita receive on the job.
"An employer cannot allow an employee to be subjected to racial slurs like gringo, or to be ridiculed or intimidated...thats called a hostile work enviroment and thats illegal."
Zita would like to go back to work for Miami-Dade County, not in the same office, but in a place where no kind of discrimination is tolerated.
When we talked to a county official, we were told Zita was fired because she transferred calls improperly.
They also deny she was fired because she was an anglo and she was not required to speak Spanish.
Her boss just requested that she learn Spanish. But contradicting that, this letter from her boss says its a necessity that she speaks Spanish.
Howard says if Zita sues the county, she has an excellant chance of winning.
Zita says right now she simply wants to find a job.
Problems don't discriminate - so race to the phone. We'll have an answer clear in any language.
Well, if this is how they want to play, then I suggest we start using some tactics that the left uses. I like to see some discrimination lawsuits filed in California and Texas regarding in-state tuition for illegal aliens. My son, being an American citizen is not being afforded the same benefit that these states would grant an illegal alien. If that is not discrimination then I don't know what is.
Don’t believe me. Look at the want ads in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, and any of the big city newspapers and all over the country. Take a look at Monster.com, the giant of on-line job listing for the entire country. Start reading all of the ads. You will be shocked, as you wont qualify for many of them because you don’t speak the right language!
Construction foreman better speak Spanish so they can attempt to communicate with the workers. Insurance claims representatives, people that work in court houses, in social services, police, human resources, sales people, city employees, dispatchers, retail clerks, Department of Motor Vehicles, and on and on and on.
And it’s getting worse folks! And it’s not just Spanish, they are looking for Vietnamese, Chinese, applicants etc etc.
Why are our so-called leaders catering to these foreigners and illegal aliens. Why are we being sold out in our own country? Don’t they realize that if this continues, it will be like a domino effect. Once you start this, there is no return.
There is no longer any damn incentive for any of these people to learn English.
Why can’t these foreigners learn to speak English? Why do many of them have no desire to learn English? Could it be that they no longer need to? Maybe I am crazy, but when I am in public, or in a working situation or even at the market, I find it extremely offensive to have people stand several feet from me carrying on a conversation in a foreign language, on a routine basis.
And its getting down right dangerous, when you need to communicate with someone in a potentially dangerous situation, and they just stand their with the deer in the headlights look.
It's getting crazy, as our politicians and so-called leaders are now even giving speaches in foreign languages, thinking this is cute or in a sick attempt to gain votes.
We are being sold down the river. If this does not stop, this country will become a tower of babble.
English is the thread that holds this country together and we are losing it fast.
Think of your kids. Are they going to demand that they learn Spanish or whatever language to survive? Why can’t they learn our language? Is there an agenda here? Many of these people come here and wave foreign flags, celebrate their own holidays, and now, refuse to even learn English because the job they just got, didn’t require it.
Must be bilingual, English only need not apply.
Private companies can require any skill they so wish from a prospective employee before they get hired, they are after all private companies, and every level of government may need people who can communicate in a wide range of languages. In that case, they can require proficiency in a foreign language as a pre-requisite of employement. If your relative was hired for a job that required a certain level of proficiency in Spanish, and she can't perform at that level, then the employer has the right to terminate, if that's not the case, she needs to get a good attorney, and sue the pants off that school district.
That gets me really angry. The taxpayers end up footing the bill and the guy who committed the crime goes scott free. I think if the taxpayes have to pay anything the bureaucrat who did it should at a minimum be fired (and perhaps a few of his superiors also).
Good point. Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez has been with the New York Yankees for four years now, and supposedly still can't speak any English. The idea that somebody who already has a full-time job could learn a foreign language in their spare time in 60 days is preposterous.
Otherwise, she should sue the City and win BIG. Enough to send a message that you don't treat people like this and get away with it.
I received a letter each yesterday from Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchinson regarding immigration. I've been bugging my congresscritters.
I haven't heard anything from Bush. I wonder why"
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