'Spent more on dog than employee's salary'; Serious allegations of exploitation against Hinduja family, case registered
Hinduja Row: Referring to a budget document titled 'Pets', prosecutor Yves Bertossa told the court that a female employee was paid the equivalent of seven Swiss francs (7.84 dollars) for working 15 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week. He said this is less than the amount of 8,584 Swiss francs spent by the family on the dog in a year.
The affluent Hinduja family has been accused of exploiting domestic servants at their Lake Geneva property, seizing their passports and paying them $8 for 15-18 hours of labour. A human trafficking trial against four members of the Hinduja family began in Switzerland on Monday, only days before three plaintiffs withdrew civil charges against the family.
The lawsuit claims that the billionaire family stole their employees' passports and refused to let anyone leave the residence without authorization. They were compensated for their labour in India, so they didn't have Swiss cash when they visited Lake Geneva, Bloomberg said.
According to the report, a prosecutor accused the Hinduja brothers of spending more on their pet dog than on an employee. Referring to a budget document titled 'Pets', prosecutor Yves Bertossa told the court that a female employee was paid the equivalent of seven Swiss francs ($7.84) for working 15 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week. He said this was less than the 8,584 Swiss francs the family spent on the dog in a year.
The prosecutor sought a one-year sentence for four members of the family - Prakash Hinduja, his wife Kamal, his son Ajay and his wife Namrata. Yves Bertossa has also demanded that the family pay 1 million Swiss francs in court costs and also give 3.5 million francs to the workers' compensation fund, the report said.
However, the Hinduja brothers' lawyer has rejected the allegations, saying the family was not involved in hiring staff or the daily running of operations. In a statement to Forbes, Hinduja lawyer Romain Jordan accused prosecutors of "bias" against the billionaire family. He said, "No other family would have been treated this way. The Hinduja family is determined to defend itself and has faith in the judicial system."
Bloomberg quoted another family lawyer Yale Hyatt as saying, "Salaries cannot be termed low just on the basis of the salary paid in cash. The accommodation was also arranged for the employees. Hyatt said that the claim of working 18 hours is also an exaggeration.
The Hinduja family is one of the richest people in India with an estimated net worth of $20 billion. Apart from real estate in London, the family does business related to shipping, banking, media, and other industries. The family controls the multinational conglomerate Hinduja Group.
