> One of the BPO vendors I work with in Pune, work to UK holidays, not Indian
> ones. However, I was struck with the way that the management made 'noises
> in our ears' to allow staff time off during Diwali (against our contract)
> but made no special provision for Ramzan.
>
> I'm not trying to inflame an already dead thread, but merely relating an
> honest observation.
What is the proportion of Hindus : Muslims : Sikhs: Jains: Christians at your vendor's office in Pune? I am venturing a guess here that over 50% of them are Hindus, in which case the management's request seems sensible to me. Imagine ticking off a good portion of your workforce by not allowing them time off during what is probably a very important holiday. Again it is my guess that if Sikhs constituted 5% of the workforce, most of them took time off during Gurunanak's birthday but that wouldn't have been as noticeable as half the population not showing up for work. It seems logical that your vendor would request for an official day off during Diwali and manage the rest of the holidays as personal time off locally. I would imagine if they worked to Indian holidays instead of UK, the most important cultural holidays would be covered, atleast that was the case when I worked in India. List members working in India can correct me if I am wrong.
I work for an Israeli company whose cellular business (R&D, sales and support) is based out of North America. Our holiday calendar is standard US, while 75% of the local workforce are Israelis or Indians (predominantly Hindu) , first generation immigrants who couldn't care less about thanksgiving and such. During Rosh Hashanah and Diwali recently, the office had quite an empty look because most people just took personal time off and our management is sensitive enough to allow us that. It hasn't occured to any of us so far, to complain that not having these holidays is discriminatory , though we constitute the majority. I personally don't care as long as I get vacation time when I want. Business reasons notwithstanding, one could claim that the practice of imposing one's own holiday structure on offshore businesses without any thought to *any* of their cultural sensitivities is highly discriminatory.
Vardhini
(I lurk most of the time)
