Opinion ID: 185978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lack of an interpreter

Text: 19 The Company's claim that the election results should be set aside because the Board failed to provide Spanish and French Creole interpreters gives us little pause. Although the Board has recognized the importance of foreign language assistance to ensuring a fair election and has ruled that under certain circumstances it must provide translated notices or ballots, e.g., Fibre Leather Mfg. Corp., 167 N.L.R.B. 393, 1967 WL 18750, 1967 NLRB LEXIS 50 (Sept. 11, 1967) (Regional Director did not conduct the election with due regard to the needs of Portuguese speaking employees who could not read English), the Board's policy is to depend upon a party to request a language accommodation. National Labor Relations Board, Case Handling Manual, Part 2, Representation Proceedings § 11315.1 (1999) (Parties should advise the Regional Director of the need for foreign language translations and/or interpreters). 20 The Company does not challenge the validity of the Board's policy but asserts that its letters to the Regional Director constituted a request for interpreters. As noted above, however, the Company's attorney wrote only that it would be beneficial and in some cases necessary for the ballots and the election notices to be printed in Spanish and French (Creole) as well [as in English]. The Regional Director duly complied with that request. The Company claims the Board should also have divined the need for an interpreter. The Company has cited no authority for this proposition, however, nor any reason to add mind-reading to the Board's already difficult task list in supervising Union elections. Because the Company made no specific request for an interpreter, it will not be heard now to claim the Board's failure to provide one rendered the election unfair.