Philippines: Discrimination Against Filipinos in Baltimore Hospital · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Four Filipina staffers of the Bon Secours Baltimore Health System in Baltimore City were recently fired from their jobs for speaking Filipino during their lunch break. Bloggers share their views on the issue.
The angry asian man believes that the hospital's English-only policy is an injustice.
I can understand a rule like this in trauma situations, where there are obvious concerns about communication. But the Bon Secours policy sounds way too broad, without clear guidelines to be fairly implemented or followed without incident. So you utter a non-English word on your snack break and you're fired? Just like that?
These employees weren't even properly informed or given documentation about the alleged violations. What did they say? What was the context? Nobody has any idea. The Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission has filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of the fired nurses.
Adarna's Attic sees the summary termination of the four Filipino workers as a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “a US federal law that protects individuals from discrimination based on race, origin or social standing.”
Jose Manuel's Blog of Life is struck that the firing “happened in the middle of a supposed “‘nursing shortage.'”
If these nurses are such a scarce commodity so treasured, why were they fired so quickly? One wonders why new nursing graduates have trouble finding jobs. The Wife’s cousin had a business recruiting nurses in the Philippines, but she shut it down as hospitals no longer needed her services. Perhaps the medical industry is trying to increase the supply of nurses in order to hold down the cost of nurses wages. If so, that’s bad news for the fired nurses.
Meanwhile, Sarah Katrina Maramag takes a comprehensive look into the plight of overseas Filipino nurses and link this to the larger picture of the continuing exodus of Filipino professionals from the Philippines.