Speak English or lose pay, Aussie firm tells staff

An Australian company has directed its multicultural work office to speak only English or sacrifice a pay rise.
The Australian company Cochlear, famous for hearing aids, has threatened to deny pay rises to staff who speak foreign languages at the workplace, despite the fact that more than half of its workers hail from non-English speaking countries.
Huy Kha, a worker from Cambodia, alleges in his complaint – to be lodged today with the NSW’s anti-discrimination board that in June his manager ordered him to “speak English at al times”
“The team leader said if we are found speaking a foreign language, we will fail our assessment to get a higher classification,” he wrote.
The Age quoted Cochlear’s Chief executive Chris Roberts as saying he was unaware of Kha’s complaint but that the company had “a policy of mutual respect in the workplace. So, there is a bunch of people in a group, they should not speak a language that cuts others out.”