YONKERS – The manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts shop who told his employees to speak only English in front of the customers is an Ecuador born 20-year-old who said he was just responding to complaints from customers.

But the sign he posted, inviting customers to complain if they heard foreign conversation behind the counter, got the attention of the corporate office, which said yesterday “his approach was inappropriate.”

Juan Chalco, of Elmsford, said he posted the sign on Tuesday because people “were complaining about my employees speaking Spanish in front of them, saying that was disrespectful.”

“It didn’t say they couldn’t speak Spanish, just not in front of the customers,” he said of the sign. “And it didn’t say ‘Spanish,’ it just said all foreign languages.”

He said the doughnut shop’s staff of eight comprises five Hispanic workers, one Egyptian, one Filipino, and one American. He said the diversity reflects the Yonkers neighborhood a few miles north of the New York City border.

“I’m Hispanic, too,” he added, “and in here between us we can speak in Spanish because it’s our language, but there were complaints.”

The sign, however, generated its own complaints and came down the next day. Mr. Chalco said he removed it after customers told him, “It was in a way discriminating against the employees.”

The Journal News, which first reported the language ban, said Mr. Chalco removed the sign when he be came aware of a reporter’s presence.

Mr. Chalco said the workers were never bothered by the restriction. Yesterday, three workers doling out coffee and doughnuts declined to talk with a reporter and spoke only English behind the counter.

Customers said they were unaware of the sign’s brief existence and were split on whether a language restriction was appropriate.

Albert Thompson, a computer repairman who left the store with a Dunkin’ Decaf, said he had no complaints about the doughnut shop, but whenever there’s a conversation in another language, “You always wonder if they’re talking about you. Well, not always, but if they’re looking at you, you wonder.”

But Josie Lopez, who works in day care and speaks Spanish and English, said that unless the conversation is with a customer, “Nobody should tell them what language to speak.”

Dunkin’ Brands Inc., based in Canton, Mass., said company policy dictates that employees with duties that include customer service must be fluent in English.

“But clearly, this doesn’t prohibit employees from being fluent in another language,” the company said. “Having employees that speak languages of the local neighborhood in addition to English can be a key element in creating a hospitable environment.”

It said Mr. Chalco’s intent “was to address a customer service and satisfaction issue – but his approach was inappropriate.”

Dunkin’ Brands spokesman Andrew Mastrangelo said no disciplinary action would be taken against Mr. Chalco or the owner of the franchise, whom he would not identify.

Alison Greene, executive director of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission, said an English-only requirement can be legal if it is limited to “a bona fide business reason” such as conversations with customers.

“But if one worker is telling another that he’s coming through the door with a tray full of doughnuts, that certainly doesn’t have to be in English,” she said. “It sounds like Mr. Chalco may have learned that lesson.”

She said no complaint had been made about the doughnut shop and no investigation was under way.

In 1999, a Yonkers judge dismissed a traffic ticket issued to a Cuban-born trucker for, among other things, being “unable to speak English.” The driver fought the charge on constitutional grounds, but it was dismissed on a technicality. The language requirement still exists in federal rules for commercial haulers.