Employee demands 10% raise because he's bilingual, even though his second language is Welsh: 'The manager then told me that the policy meant Spanish'

It's a perk for anyone to be bilingual, but in this workplace environment, it served as justification for a raise.

That's because employees at this company were often required to take work trips to other offices and sites where colleagues and clients did not necessarily speak English. Recently, in order to attract more bilingual employees to the company (and in order to reward current employees who often have to be the point people in these communications), a new policy was enforced where bilingual employees would be granted a 10% raise. Given that these employees often had to take the reins for a lot of these conversations with non-English-speaking clients, the policy seemed fair enough.

Now, the vast majority of these non-English-speaking clients spoke Spanish. Although Spanish was not directly specified as the preferred or required second language in this new policy, management assumed that most employees would understand that the policy only really applied to those who spoke both English and Spanish. However, we all know what happens when you assume…

This employee, who recently took it upon himself to learn Welsh as it is part of his family's heritage, made the case for why he qualified for this raise. Even though management was initially baffled by the request, they were unable to contest it, given that they did not specify which languages applied to the policy. Who knew speaking Welsh in an environment where it was completely unnecessary would prove to be a genuine argument for a salary increase?

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An employee shakes hands with HR after earning a 10% raise.
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My job told us they would pay more if an employee became bilingual. Felly, dysgais Gymraeg.

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We're certain that the Human Resources representative who had to listen to the author's argument likely rolled their eyes and scoffed at the idea that he qualified for this raise. Still, there was nothing anyone in upper management could say to deny his request. At the end of the day, they had no one to blame but themselves for not being specific enough in the employee handbook.
Sure, they were able to amend the policy moving forward, but it wouldn't be until after the author got his raise. What's most amusing of all, however, is that the guy doesn't even speak Welsh fluently. I guess there was no one working at the company who could prove that…
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The employee makes his case for a raise due to his ability to speak Welsh.
_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
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