What to do if candidate uses foreign language in job application

Q         Our employment applications are available in English. If a candidate applies in a language other than English and our recruiters can’t read the responses, what do we do with the application? Are we able to disqualify the candidate?

A   Generally, you aren’t required to accept or consider an “illegible” job application. Given the national origin protections built into Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, the area of the law covering the language on a job application is murky and undeveloped.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has said requiring employees or applicants to be fluent in English, or requiring them to speak only English on the job, could violate Title VII if the rule isn’t related to job performance and is used to exclude people of a particular national origin. So, rejecting applicants based on their inability to speak English could be considered national origin discrimination.

Of course, the job requirements matter, too. For example, requiring a secretary to be proficient in English would likely be reasonable, but it might be improper for a manual labor position.

California case. In a somewhat related issue, a federal court in California declined to hold that “employers must translate each contract into each of its employees’ native languages.” More specifically, the court held the employees weren’t bound to an arbitration agreement in a job application where the employer provided them with English-only versions of the document and failed to explain it was a contract, despite knowing they didn’t understand English.