Usted Habla Inglés, Gringo?

Nancy Pelosi thinks it should be illegal to require your employees to speak English at work. The debate over so-called "English-Only" rules is not new, it's been around as long as employers have had policies requiring employees to speak English.

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) is sponsoring and amendment to a spending bill (S. 1745, 110^th Congress) that would prohibit the EEOC from continuing to use federal funding to initiate or participate in litigation against employers who impose rules requiring employees to speak English on the job.

The EEOC takes the position that English-Only rules tend to adversely impact employees on the basis of national origin and, as such, are illegal unless justified by a business necessity. The EEOC consistently rejects business necessity arguments that such policies are necessary for smooth and efficient communications; or encourage camaraderie and minimize balkanization; or to allow for effective supervision and policing of the workforce.

Although Alexander's proposed amendment passed both the Senate and House by lop-sided margins (75-19 and 218-186, respectively), Ms. Pelosi is vowing to block the legislation.

Mandatory Paid Family Leave.

Each of the Democratic nominee front runners (Clinton, Obama and Edwards) is proposing changes to family leave laws. All three propose that the federal government provide funding to states for the purpose of developing state law programs requiring paid family leave. Clinton proposes the federal government allocate $1 billion to these programs, Obama $1.5 billion and Edwards $2 billion.

All three also propose reducing the FMLA coverage threshold from 50 employees to 25 employees.

Clinton and Edwards go a couple of steps further by proposing that all employers should be required to provide a minimum of 7 paid "sick days" per year and Edwards vows to provide "eight weeks of paid leave for all" by 2014.