Many call centre employees in India take on western names while interacting with callers, but now a Leicester-based telesales company has been found guilty of racial discrimination for forcing Indian-origin employees to adopt English names.
An employee Rahul Jain (28) was made to change his name to Rob Matthews by the Teachares 2 Parents company, which offers ‘effortless communication' between teachers and parents. His white colleagues could retain their original names at work.
The company founded in 2007 is incidentally owned by Indian-origin entrepreneurs, Suresh Patel and Uresh Naik.
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Mr. Jain complained against the forced change of name, and now an employment tribunal has found the employers guilty of racial discrimination, the
The tribunal was told that the company “had a number of staff of Indian-ethnic origin who adopted anglicised names at work.”
They included Aarti (Anna), Mehul (Max), Sarbjit (Sally), Meera (Marie), Neeraj (Neil), Prakhash (Terry), Jaspal (Jay), Jayna (Jane) and Faizal (Fred).
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The employers reportedly claimed that English names were easier for customers to spell in emails, and that customers had struggled with Indian names.