National Left - Wales needs a progressive left future.
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Quasi-Colonlism continues (1)
And so the insults to Cymraeg and Wales in general continues .
Workers at an aeroplane maintenance firm in RAF Valley were allegedly banned from speaking Welsh unless everyone present could. BAE Systems and its maintenance partner Babcock employ 470 people at RAF Valley on Anglesey
. A source told the Daily Post that a female training manager with Babcock allegedly told employees speaking Welsh off. He said Welsh-speaking HR staff visiting her department were “humiliated” by her actions.
The source said:
“She promptly informed them that Welsh speaking is not tolerated. “I find this act of ignorance a disgraceful slight on the local Welsh-speaking community. “The workforce is understandably devastated and uncomfortable.”
However, a Babcock spokesman said the company strives to treat everyone equally.
He
said:
At RAF Valley that means that in the interests of politeness we
ask that our colleagues speak English in a business context when there
are non-Welsh speaking people also present.
“We have not received any complaints about this request and
indeed it was discussed and agreed at a union meeting in December 2017.
The Union agreed to this? They should explain their actions
“There
is, however, no desire to stop any person speaking in Welsh during
social interaction or indeed enacting company business requirements
should all involved speak Welsh. “We believe that making the most of the differences in our workforce is key to the success of our business.”
But Osian Rhys from language campaign group
Cymdeithas yr Iaith said if the allegations were true, then the company
had broken the law. He said:
“It has been illegal since 2011 to stop, or attempt to stop, two individuals from speaking Welsh to each other. “A company adopting such a policy, which in this case appears to break the law, should not get a single government contract. “We will be asking the Welsh Language Commissioner to start an investigation into the matter. “It’s important for people to realise they have a legal freedom to speak Welsh. “Any infringement can be investigated by the Commissioner if she receives a complaint, which can be made anonymously.”
Rhun ap Iorwerth, AM, echoed Mr Rhys' comments.He said:
"In an area where Welsh is so widely spoken, any manager telling a
member of staff that ‘Welsh speaking is not tolerated’ would clearly be
unacceptable.
"I hope Babcock will give an undertaking to take all complaints seriously, including this one. “The
company says it wants to ‘treat everyone... equally’, and in a
bilingual area, that has to mean giving equal respect to those two
languages. "It is inevitable that in a bilingual society there
will be conversations in Welsh between Welsh speakers in front of
non-Welsh speakers - not because those individuals are impolite, but
because that is their first language. “Anglesey has had a very
long relationship with the RAF and its suppliers, and like any good
relationship, let’s look forward to seeing it flourish, based on mutual
respect.”
It is highly possible that there are people working there who are friends who ave spoken in Cymraeg al their lives and are now told to speak in English.
How can we promote the value of speaking Welsh when people are told that they will not be allowed to speak in when in work?
How can we proclaim that Cymraeg is equal when we here of such appalling demands to speak English?
You would not ask people in a working environment to discuss last nights football game, because there workers there who do not understand the rules of the game?
"Equality" means Equality not only when it suits Monoglot English speakers (Like myself). We need a new Language act to make it clear that people have the right to speak Cymraeg amongst themselves in any environment. Even in the mythical pub when "everybody" starts talking in Welsh when an English speaker enters the room.
This colonial attitude must stop not only from those who make such demands that people speak only in English but from those who in Wales who accept it.
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