I accept your point about Germany, however I went for a job there and was then told the German Union (called the WV from memory) inisited on fluent German after the sim check despite initially allowing you to sit a language test 6 months after starting. They listened to their members and acted.
Actually the german union (called Vereinigung Cockpit or VC) has no official policy about any language issue and certainly does not require any german fluency. I do represent my colleagues as a member of said unions negotiation commission for a pretty large german carrier and we never have even talked about that issue with our employer, and yes, we do have one american and one canadian pilot in our commission as well as numerous non german pilots on our various seniority lists (just in the process of merging three into one). In most cases it is the company that insists in its operation manuals that we have to be able to speak german fluently to be able to talk to all the other non-flight operations staff.