Turkish employees in a department at the German auto manufacturer BMW were banned from speaking Turkish among themselves, reports said Monday.

The foreman in the vehicle processing center of Bayerische Motorenwerke (BMW) in the city of Garching bei München banned about 20 German-Turkish workers in the same shift from speaking Turkish.

Employees reacted to the ban which was introduced at a factory where 7,000 people from 50 nations work.

According to the German Bild daily, employees were banned from speaking Turkish even in social areas. The foreman only allowed employees at the Garching factory to speak German alone. The ban introduced by the foreman was reported to Turkish employees working at the factory in Turkish.

Employees who were affected by the ban rejected the decision. Turkish workers said that they were exposed to discrimination, complaining to the union about the arbitrary practice of the foreman. The union stated that such a practice was illegal. Moreover, the human resources department sided by the staff and started to examine the incident.

Company spokesman Jochen Frey said that BMW workers are not obliged to use a certain language among themselves at the factory, adding that however German should be the common language while working so that everyone can understand each other. "The company does not dictate which language the employees should speak, but it places restrictions to speak German while working so that working instructions can be understood by everyone," he said.