Pune engineer alleges harassment on religious grounds; moves labour commissioner

Aman Khan, 37, was at a loss for words as after almost three years’ service in a Quebec-headquartered multinational company in Magarpatta, he was asked to put in his papers because of alleged religious discrimination — that too in the same year he was rewarded with a promotion. Worse, the company, EXFO, instead of taking action on Khan’s complaint against his senior manager, terminated him on June 12. Finding no other option left, Khan, who lives in Kondhwa, filed a complaint with the deputy commissioner of labour on June 21, alleging religious and mental harassment by the software company.

It all started on April 6, according to Khan, who used to work as a tech leader in EXFO. It was a Friday and following tradition, he went to the mosque for his evening prayers. When he returned, he was still wearing a handkerchief on his head and began working, forgetting to take it off.

He was called by senior manager Kishore Kotecha, who then, according to Khan, started discussing with him the dos and don'ts of his religious practices. “He started pointing to the handkerchief which I wore to cover my head during namaaz. I had shown reluctance and tried not to discuss religious matters but he continued making remarks on my religious practice and attire,” Khan stated in his complaint to the labour commissioner. He added that he even tried to remind Kotecha that EXFO does not have any rules regarding this and that it was his constitutional right to practice the religion he wanted to in a way he deemed fit.

Extremely hurt by this discussion with Kotecha, Khan escalated the matter to the company HR, but got no respite from there either. Instead, he claims that the entire Pune management of EXFO got involved in the matter. “The management had several meetings with me but was always looking for ways to convince me to withdraw my complaint. When the senior officials realised that I was adamant that the company takes disciplinary action against Kotecha, they decided that it would be better to terminate me on June 12,” Khan, who is the breadwinner for his 12 immediate and extended family members, haplessly told Mirror. During these weeks, he reported the matter to his head office in Canada, but all his efforts were in vain.

EXFO, according to the company website, “develops smarter network test, monitoring and analytics solutions for the world’s leading communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and webscale companies”.

On this issue, EXFO representative Krishna Murthy BVS said, “EXFO is an equal opportunity employer and we have utmost respect for our employees and their beliefs. We value our employees and we are proud to have a diverse workforce. We do not tolerate any kind of discrimination. We take any feedback from our employees very seriously. Our employee attrition rate is one of the lowest in the industry.”

About Khan’s promotion and his subsequent termination, he added that the annual performance management is a well-established process aimed at retaining the company’s high performing employees. “Out of respect for employee privacy, EXFO does not comment on individual employee conduct /performance,” he added.

Additional labour commissioner Nikhil Walke, who is handling the case, told Mirror, “We have received the case and are looking into the matter. The company has been called on June 29 for a meeting.”

Fighting for the rights of IT employees across the country, Forum for IT Employees (FITE) Pune vice-president Vivek Mestri condemned the act. He said, “FITE Maharashtra condemns this type of religious discrimination among employees. Every Indian citizen should respect our Constitution. In the IT/ITES sector, discrimination is taking place in terms of salary, grading, promotion etc. There are instances where unfair labour practices of HR policies are being opposed by employees. These employees are either forced to resign, terminated, degraded and their career growth is resisted.” He added that the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, 2013, covers many guidelines, thereby making compulsory for companies to handle this type of harassment at workplace as well.