– DNI number, please?
– Quatre, sis, set…
– In Spanish, please.
– Can I speak Catalan at home?
–Look, if you don’t tell me in Spanish I won’t be able to give you the package.
– Can you understand me? I will speak little by little. I will speak little by little.
–Look, I don’t understand.
This is one of the situations of linguistic discrimination in digital commerce that has been made public by the Language Platform and pointed out by the Dutch-based parcel company GLS. The other case refers to the Catalan company Paack, which did not attend to a client who asked to speak in Catalan; she called seven times to be attended to in Catalan and to know where her package was and only received as an answer: “Madam, please speak Spanish“. The client insisted on her right to be served in Catalan, and the interlocutor insisted that it be changed to Spanish or some other language that he understood.
Plataforma per la Léngua requests that this kind of discrimination be recorded in order to pursue the relevant complaints and to “combat the feeling of impunity that these types of companies have”, because sometimes the workers “humiliate and mistreat the customer because they have the certainty that what they are doing will not have any negative consequences in their work environment”. In the case of the Paack company, after the complaint they have taken “the corresponding measures”, because they consider that there was “totally unacceptable conduct”, as the company has communicated to the Platform. In the case of GLS, there was no response.
Businesses must sign and serve in Catalan, but what happens when companies are online? For now, there are no specific regulations that regulate the field of digital consumption and that oblige companies based in Catalonia to have a website in the Catalan language, nor in Spanish or in any other language; it is a decision that remains in the hands of the employer. Yes, it should comply with the consumer code and, therefore, interactions or information aimed at potential Catalan consumers (invitations, quotes, catalogues, instructions, etc.) should be available in Catalan.
Plataforma per la Llengua points out that today delivery companies already bring together 5% of the workers in the entire Spanish state. Correus has 35.3% of the market share, followed by Seur (12.3%) and then companies such as MRW and DHL. Amazon (45.6%) and AliExpress (10.9%) are the main online stores. Faced with the growth of the sector, the Platform affirms that it will accentuate its work in this area and in the whole area of Catalan in the company.
