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What does a wife do when the dating allowance being offered to her husband at work wreaks havoc on her married life?
Azim Premji and his company would have never thought that their decision to give employees a dating allowance would land them in court. But Tripti Nigam, a homemaker in Kanpur is suing the two for misleading her husband, Gaurav Nigam – an employee of the very same company – with their dating allowance.
According to Tripti, the dating allowance is the cause of turbulence in her married life and the reason why her husband has been ignoring her. "The dating allowance provided to my husband was an incentive for him to start dating other women despite being married to me. It has broken my marriage. And I blame not just my husband, but also businessman Azim Premji, who is his employer, for it," she says in a choked voice.
"That's why I have sued my husband as well as his employer for causing me mental agony," she adds.
While Gaurav could not be contacted for comment, Nandlal Jaiswal, advocate, who is fighting the case on Tripti's behalf also questions the validity of giving married men like Gaurav Nigam a dating allowance. "Providing employees with a dating allowance is unethical because it misleads them and they are tempted to indulge in objectionable activities, which in turn disturb their family lives. There is nothing wrong in giving perks as incentives, but companies should understand that these perks should not be of a nature that can cause trouble in their personal lives,"he avers.
However, not everybody feels that a dating allowance is unjustified. Prateek Jain, senior technical advisor working with a software development company is one of them. "I don't find anything wrong in it. In my last job, I was entitled to a dating allowance and since I am single, I used it to my benefit. Also, it depends on the employee how he utilises the allowance. In fact, some companies are also providing honeymoon allowances to encourage marriages between two employees working in the same office!" he informs, adding, "Such allowances are given to help employees de-stress and motivate them to work. If someone uses them in an inappropriate manner, how can the company be held responsible for it?"
The opinion is divided on the utility of such allowances. Says Champa Sen Bhatia, HR manager of a call centre, "No matter how modern we may be, the fact remains that our society is still not ready for such allowances. These things work in the West from where we borrow these concepts, but not in India. It will take some time for people here to get comfortable with a dating or honeymoon allowance."
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