[MaxBarraclough]

> in the case that nobody can understand the person due to such a thick accent, the employer may have some argument that it is not discriminatory

So the intent of the law is to prohibit making hiring decisions on the grounds of "I don't like that particular accent", it's not intended to force companies to disregard whether a candidate is intelligible.

Seems sensible enough. I imagine this isn't even specific to foreign candidates - here in the UK, there are quite strong associations with different regional accents (which ones sound 'refined' or 'unrefined', etc). It would of course be unfairly discriminatory to rule out a candidate on those grounds.