A notice from the manager prohibiting employees to speak Spanish motivated one former Supercuts employee to eventually quit her job. The notice reads: “Speaking a language other than English is not only disrespectful, it’s also prohibited.”

Former employee Rosa Gonzalez comments on her former manager at one of the Chicago franchises: “She'd stop and give a dirty look and a rude voice and say, ‘Don't you know guys you cannot speak Spanish nowhere on the floor even if the customers are not present?’”

Supercuts now faces a federal discrimination lawsuit for allegedly violating the civil rights of Hispanic employees.

“Telling employees that they cannot speak their own language during breaks is national origin discrimination,” said the attorney handling the case.

The complaint was originally brought by two Hispanic hair stylists from the Supercuts store on South Michigan Avenue, but it has now become a class-action lawsuit that includes Hispanic employees in 22 stores across the Chicago area.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, even if the store argued the employees were making customers uncomfortable by speaking Spanish on the job, that would not be a valid argument in a courtroom.