LONDON: A worker who was fired by a top City firm yesterday claimed she was sacked because of her arranged marriage.
Ayesha Sheika, 21, told the Evening Standard that bosses at BDO Stoy Hayward pried into her private life and office gossips made her life a misery after her parents persuaded her to marry a virtual stranger in Pakistan.
Ayesha claims she was the only member of staff in her 120-strong department to be made redundant and that her job is now being done by someone else.
She has launched an employment tribunal claim against BDO for unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of race and religion.
Yesterday Ayesha told the Standard that her manager had made her redundant after learning of the marriage. “She said to me that she would not put me forward for training because I had an arranged marriage,” she said.
Ayesha married 27-year-old Kaiser Sheika in Islamabad in December 2004, three months after starting work as an administrator in BDO’s Baker Street office.
She said: “I was shocked and nervous at the prospect of marrying someone I had never met before, but at the end of the day arranged marriages are part of my Asian culture and I respect my parents’ wishes a lot.”
Ayesha said that after returning to work she told a few close colleagues about the wedding, only for the news to spread quickly around the office grapevine.
She said: “It got to the point where every other day someone was coming up asking me about my arranged marriage. It was very upsetting and made me feel uncomfortable, knowing everyone was talking behind my back too.”
Ayesha, from Battersea, said a key reason she took the £15,000-a-year job was BDO’s promise to pay for her three-year training for chartered taxation accountancy exams. However, she claimed that in June last year she was told bosses did not think she was capable of taking the exams.
“(HR partner Emma Howard) said that my husband coming would interfere with my studies,” she said. “I was flabbergasted. I was in tears. I had set my heart on qualifying as an accountant and was so happy to be at such a big, prestigious firm. It was my dream job.”
She was eventually laid off in January. BDO denies all Ayesha’s allegations and is contesting her tribunal claim, which is expected to be heard later this year. – London Evening Standard |
