News: Firing Shreya Ukil from Wipro 'Unfair' but not 'Wrongful': UK tribunal

Employee Relations

Firing Shreya Ukil from Wipro 'Unfair' but not 'Wrongful': UK tribunal

Ukil had claimed that she was subjected to "deeply predatory, misogynistic culture" at Wipro, and had sought damages to the tune of 1 million pound in a petition filed before the Central London Employment Tribunal
Firing Shreya Ukil from Wipro 'Unfair' but not 'Wrongful': UK tribunal

A London based tribunal has delivered its judgment in the case involving Shreya Ukil, the 40 year old ex-employee who sued Wipro in October last year. The tribunal noted that the claimant was “unfairly dismissed” but the “the complaint of wrongful dismissal fails and is dismissed”. While the legality of the dismissal has not been brought into question, the court noted the circumstances surrounding the dismissal as unfair. 

The following complaints brought pursuant of Equality Act 2010 by Ukil succeeded:  “direct sex discrimination in respect of remarks by Mr. Joseph”, “victimization in respect of being required to return to India in 2014”, “victimization in relation to blocking of attempts to find another internal job within Europe during 2014” and victimization for complaints made in “January 2014” and “June 2014”.  People Matters has seen a copy of the judgment.

Ukil’s employment lawyers, Slater and Gordon, said: “Ms. Ukil is pleased that the tribunal found against Wipro and that it recognized that senior members of Wipro’s leadership were directing matters to remove Ms. Ukil from her team and from the UK altogether.  She was not afforded even a fair hearing by her employer prior to her dismissal whilst on sick leave.”

However, in a statement to the press the company said: “Wipro is pleased the UK Employment Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of the complainant from the services of the organisation as appropriate and rejected claims of adverse cultural attitude towards women in the organisation.”

The court is yet to rule on the settlement to Ukil, who sued the company for a million pounds. It has also reserved judgment on whether Ukil did like work with the comparators of her grade and whether or not Wipro had established a material factor in defence of the pay disparity.

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Topics: Employee Relations, #Current, #Corporate

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