Rivera Language Rights Case Goes Forward

From the Employment Law Center:

On Monday, January 10, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously let stand an appeals court decision in Rivera v. Nibco, a widely-watched civil rights case brought by LAS–ELC on behalf of 23 Latina and Southeast Asian workers who were discriminatorily fired by Nibco, Inc., an Indiana-based multinational corporation, because of their language and national origin. The appeals court ordered a new trial because Nibco had removed a prospective juror from the Rivera jury because she was Latina.

“We’re very gratified the Court saw no need to change the appeals court’s conclusion that Nibco excluded at least one prospective juror solely because of her race,” said LAS–ELC attorney Christopher Ho, lead counsel for the Rivera plaintiffs. “Now our clients will have an opportunity to put their case forward before a fairly chosen jury.”

Rivera, filed in 1999, is a challenge to Nibco’s use of a supposed “job skills” test, administered entirely in English, to lay off scores of Latina/o and Asian workers before all others at an irrigation manufacturing plant in Fresno, California. Although these immigrant workers had performed their jobs successfully for years with only limited English proficiency, Nibco’s test—which required a perfect, 100% score to pass—effectively singled out these and other workers of color for failure. After a seven-week trial in late 2008, an overwhelmingly Caucasian jury in Fresno returned a verdict in Nibco’s favor.

The Rivera plaintiffs appealed that adverse verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, pointing out that Nibco had repeatedly misrepresented facts about three Latina/o prospective jurors in a successful effort to persuade the trial judge that they should not be allowed to serve on the jury. The plaintiffs also argued that Nibco used entirely different patterns of questioning jurors, depending upon whether they were Latina/o or Caucasian. Read more…

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