Judges Doubt Ex-Walmart Worker’s Language-Based Bias Claim (1)

A former Walmart employee’s harassment over her limited English-speaking skills likely isn’t enough on its own to establish a claim of national origin-based discrimination, federal appellate judges told the employee’s counsel at oral arguments in her lawsuit.

Rude comments and mistreatment that customers and coworkers directed toward Russian-born Elena Mukhina at a Walmart store in Alabama were mostly, if not entirely, related to her difficulty communicating, said Judge William H. Pryor Jr., during the Monday afternoon hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Her initial complaint to her managers “was just about rudeness and failing to ...