Arrogant Swinton Insurance Company Begrudgingly Apologises for Anti-Welsh Anglophone Bigotry

When Anglophone bigotry raised its ugly head at Swinton Insurance Company they were quite correctly slammed by the Welsh Language Commissioner. As reported in the Welsh newspaper the Daily Post “A major insurance company interfered with an individual's freedom to use Welsh, the Language Commissioner ruled. It was the first time Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws used new powers to investigate after an individual who worked for Swinton Insurance complained about the employer’s policy of prohibiting staff from using the Welsh language when discussing details of financial products with Welsh speaking customers in Wales.”

Whilst language campaigners welcomed the Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws judgement they called for sanctions to be served on the company.  Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg spokesman Jamie Bevan said “We’re pleased she has come to this conclusion and held an inquiry, but where’s the penalty? Where’s the follow-up? It’s not clear whether she has tried to change the financial regulator’s guidelines that have led to these awful problems either.” 

As for Swinton Insurance, whilst accepting the judgement part of their spokesman’s response included a moan about the cost of providing a service to Welsh speaking customers and “starting later this year, Swinton will allow its employees in Wales to discuss financial products with customers in Welsh. “ Well that’s big of them to allow us to speak our language whilst operating in our country. The message needs to be loud and clear provide a service in our language or suffer the consequence!