The Union Square-area Forever 21 store in San Francisco is the target of a civil rights claim by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing after it came to light that management at the store was allegedly requiring all employees to speak English only during work hours — which is a violation of state law. As the Chronicle reports, three Spanish-speaking employees brought the claim after having their work hours reduced following complaints they made about the rule, which prevented them from speaking in Spanish with each other, or with customers who primarily spoke Spanish.

The agency is seeking damages on behalf of the employees for discriminating against them based on their national origin. Says Kevin Kish, the state agency’s director, "Linguistic diversity is a business reality in the California workplace, and the department will carefully scrutinize English-only rules to ensure that all employees are treated equally, regardless of their national origin."

The Forever 21 corporation, which is based in Los Angeles, denies that any of their stores has ever had an English-only policy, and said in a statement that the company is "committed to diversity and inclusion in all of our stores."

The store in question appears to be not the former Forever 21 at Powell, which closed two years ago, but the XXI Forever-branded store at Stockton and Market.