KARACHI – A woman was asked to resign on unprofessional and unethical grounds citing the reason that her religious obligations came in the way of her performance.
A Facebook post narrating the incident stated that a woman, who was recently hired at the ‘Creative Chaos as the associate talent acquisition officer, was told by her line manager that she could continue the job only if she takes off her hijab as it was spoiling company’s image.
The woman went to CEO of the Karachi-based software house to ask why they hired her in the first place if this was such a problem to which he responded that they usually do not hire such persons and it was a mistake on their behalf.
The CEO of the company also asked her to apply at Al Meezan or Al Barakah because she would be better suited over there.
The company also refused to write the reason on termination letter and warned about consequences if she took any legal action.
After the Facebook post narrating the incident went viral and drew sharp criticism on social media, the company’s CEO publicly confirmed that the incident had indeed taken place, and also issued an apology.
“Not only is this action disgraceful but shows extremely poor moral judgment by her hiring manager,” said a letter issued by company’s CEO.
Our values and ethos are built around creating a high-performance culture based on meritocracy, growth, mutual respect and collective tolerance. We only appraise you on your skills, qualifications and the value you create for our customers. it added.
Your religious beliefs, political beliefs. your gender, your ethnicity and anything that you consider as part of your identity – do not matter and you should never ever be discriminated against for any of these reasons, it further stated.
The fact that a hiring manager did not understand our company’s values and ethos is a failure on our part to communicate and enforce our policies effectively. I take full responsibility for this failure and am deeply ashamed that a colleague was put through distress and trauma, the letter read.
The company has asked the woman to continue working with the organization and suspended the hiring manager until a transparent inquiry is conducted for further concrete actions.
However, the statement of the CEO made no mention of the employee’s claim that he himself had also asked her to resign on the controversial grounds.
