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Asians are discriminated against in the workplace
Two Asian former employees describing the diversity of its work force sued Western Digital Corp. for race discrimination and wrongful termination. The suit claims the company favoured white men during job cuts last year at its Irvine headquarters. Court orders forced Western Digital to acknowledge wrong-doing and set up a training programme to battle workplace discrimination.
Leon Nguyen of Laguna Niguel says he was exiled from his $80,000-a-year job as computer operations manager in August 1997 and assigned to work for an outside contractor with lower pay, benefits and duties. The suits say he was paid less than similar white managers and was the only Asian American manager at Western Digital when he lost his job.
Throughout the country, qualified hardworking Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipino, Vietnamese and many other Asian immigrants are denied job opportunities, fired or otherwise discriminated against for reasons that have nothing to do with their performance and abilities. By repeatedly challenging the racial discrimination, Asian Americans push to redefine the meaning of race and equality in American law and society because it is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant because of the individual's national origin. According to the law, "No one can be denied equal employment opportunity because of ancestry, culture, or linguistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group" (Turner).
Asian Americans who have their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds are not able to adjust easily to American society and still be classified as "alien without legal identification". Therefore, they have difficulties to struggle with the social relations with other minorities and white people in the workplace, which can cause misunderstanding and hostility. Clearly, multiculturalism is one of the greatest challenges in the workplace and the "organisational culture" has become a priority concept in business ethics. Because of an individual's accent or manner of speaking, Asian Americans have many difficulties in communication at work. Kim says "I was denied jobs and promotions because of my foreign accent" (Root 27).
Further, some employers require their employees to speak English at all times, including during their work break and lunch time. They consider that "employees" use offoreign language is so disconcerting "(Darity 48). This is one example of an employment practice, which discriminates...