French GE workers sue over use of English

PARIS – General Electric employee Nadine Meslin says dealing with computer software in any language is tricky, but it’s even worse when you’re French and the jargon is in English.

So what’s the answer? Sue!

French employees of a GE branch that makes medical equipment, tired of struggling with company e-mails, manuals and meetings in English, took their fight to court on Tuesday – the latest flare-up in the French language’s struggle to maintain linguistic pre-eminence, at least at home.

“It is really for work purposes, so we can do our jobs competently,” Meslin, a GE Healthcare marketing assistant who also represents the CGT trade union, said of the court action. “It is in no way a question of pride.”

Pride, nevertheless, has a lot to do with French discomfort over the creep of English, both here and elsewhere in the world. A French law aimed at fending off English usage in business and on the airwaves marked its 10th anniversary this year. French-language defenders keep an eagle-eye out for transgressions such as – quelle horreur! – English-language advertising.

The Web site of the Defense of the French Language, a group partly financed by France’s Culture Ministry, even has a page titled “Museum of Horrors” showing photos of English-language billboards on buses, at train stations, airports and that most iconic of French institutions, the Paris Metro.

GE Healthcare based its court complaint on the Toubon Law, introduced in 1994, which makes French mandatory in a variety of situations, ranging from advertising to workplace documents employees need to do their jobs. The latter must be written in French but can be accompanied by translations.