Days after announcing that he was voluntarily quitting Penguin International as its CEO, India- born David Davidar has now said the company has terminated him.
Days after announcing that he was voluntarily quitting Penguin International as its chief executive officer, India-born David Davidar has now said the company terminated his services in the wake of a sexual harassment suit slapped against him by a former woman colleague, who is demanding $523,000 in damages.
"Earlier this week it was announced that I would be leaving Penguin Canada. At Penguin's request, I agreed to publicly state that my departure was voluntary. The truth is that a former colleague accused me of sexual harassment and Penguin terminated my employment," Davidar, 52, one of the most influential Indians in the international publishing industry, said.
His statement came as Lisa Rundle, former rights and contracts director of Penguin Canada, filed a sexual harassment suit against him.
Rundle filed the $523,000 suit by way of statement of claim on Thursday in an Ontario superior court of justice, alleging that Davidar, who was also president of Penguin Canada, sexually harassed her repeatedly over the past three years, culminating in outright assault at the Frankfurt Book Fair last fall, and that she was fired after complaining to superiors about his "twisted treatment" of her, the Globe and Mail reported.
Rundle of Toronto, who used to look after digital publishing and foreign rights for Penguin Canada, is claiming damages of $423,000 from Penguin for "wrongful" dismissal and the "harsh, vindictive and malicious fashion" in which it allegedly treated her following her complaints against Davidar.
She is also seeking damages of $100,000 from Davidar personally.
According to a statement released by Penguin Canada: "Ms Rundle also made a number of claims relating to Penguin Canada including wrongful termination."
However, Penguin Canada contends that she was "not terminated" by the company; rather, she informed the company of her decision to leave "after having declined to pursue other career opportunities within the organisation."
In a statement emailed to the media, Davidar said he is "utterly shocked by the allegations" that he sexually harassed a former colleague.
He said he intends to fight the suit in court and that he is "certain that the truth will prevail."
"I had a friendship with my colleague which lasted for three years," said Davidar, hitherto the 'golden boy' of the publishing industry.
He also said he was "dismayed that Penguin Canada chose to respond to them [the allegations against him] by directing me to leave Penguin."
When he stepped down from Penguin Canada earlier this week and from his job as CEO of Penguin International, a position he had only held since January, he said it was to return to writing.
"Principally, I wanted to [return to] my writing. I've got about six chapters of a new novel done," he told Quill & Quire.
"I wrote my previous two novels while I was working, and I wanted to see if I could give this one [a better] shot if I didn't have a day job to go to.
"So my plan is to take at least a year to see if I can finish the novel," he had said.
Davidar, who came to Canada from Penguin India in 2003, said he does intend to pursue his writing career, and that he does not intend to make further comments on the pending lawsuit.
His last day in office was to be August 15.
Penguin Canada said the firm "expect to appoint a new head of the Canadian company in the near future."
The accusations against Davidar were accompanied by quotations from several email messages he allegedly sent to Rundle during the period in question.
Last year, he is said to have written that he "could do very little except think of [Rundle]," that she was "utterly gorgeous", "a vision in pink sipping a champagne cocktail", and that she should not be "stubborn" or "fight" him, the paper reported.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair last October, according to the claim, Davidar appeared at Rundle's hotel room door "wearing excessive cologne, with buttons on his shirt undone down [to] his waist."
Rundle claimed she climbed on a windowsill to avoid her boss and asked him to leave. "He forcibly pulled her off the ledge and grabbed her by the wrists, forcing his tongue into her mouth," the report said.
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