foreign language assistance

[Guest PeterGulia]

The DoL interpretation of what should be included in a SPD calls for a foreign language notice if a threshhold number of participants are literate only in "the same foreign language". 29 CFR 2520.102-2©.

If an employer's regular hiring procedures do not include any inquiry about what language (if any) an employee reads, how does the employer/plan administrator know whether an employee is literate in any foreign language? Assume that literacy in any language, even English, is not a job requirement for the foreign-speaking employees.

Then, if an employer concludes that it might be deemed to have implied knowledge that the applicable number of employees may be literate in a common foreign language, does it make sense to use the DoL-suggested foreign language notice?

That notice is supposed to explain the procedure for obtaining foreign language assistance. A typical sentence in wide use in many SPDs says "ask the plan administrator".

What happens if the plan administrator's human resources office has NO employee who speaks the foreign language? Assume that the only employee who speaks both English and the foreign language is the workers' foreman, who is unprepared and unwilling to attempt to explain the plan.

Is it MISLEADING to use the foreign language notice if the plan administrator has no way to provide foreign language assistance?

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