Wipro claims victory in case against ‘unfair dismissal’ of Shreya Ukil

Wipro on Wednesday said in a statement that it has won a case against ‘unfair dismissal’ levelled by a former UK-based employee.

However, the UK Employment Tribunal court, which heard the case, in its order upheld former employee Shreya Ukil’s allegation of sex discrimination and unequal pay.

Ukil, 40, who worked with the software company for a decade, had filed a case in October last year alleging that she was subjected to a “deeply predatory, misogynistic culture” at the company.

She also claimed that she was paid significantly lower than her male colleagues.

When contacted, a Wipro spokesperson 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.”

But Ukil’s lawyers, Slater and Gordon, who released a copy of the judgment to the media, said the tribunal had upheld the complaint regarding victimisation in respect of bringing of disciplinary charges, refusing to accept the claimant’s resignation, followed by dismissal.

Ukil, who was the sales and market development managerin the London office, had claimed in her deposition that the leadership team, including the then CEO TK Kurien, conspired to push her out of the job for speaking up.

The statement released by Ukil’s lawyers said the tribunal found that comments made by Wipro employees Sid Sharma and George Joseph, on separate occasions, reflected an “extra undercurrent of sexism in their attitudes’’ towards Ukil, with remarks that “plainly conveyed a sexist innuendo”.

It also mentioned that the comments about Ukil being “extremely shrill, shallow and un-European” potentially amounted to race discrimination.

Further, the tribunal inferred that the company went all out to ensure that Ukil was not able to move anywhere else in Europe.

In her deposition, Ukil said she had been asked by the company’s chief legal counsel, Inderpreet Sawhney, to sign an indemnity to waive all claims that she might make, as the company was becoming increasingly fearful of sexual harassment claims she might make against a senior management team member.

Ukil had also named the company’s global HR head Saurabh Govil, along with Kurien, who made a series of decisions behind the scenes.

In her testimony, Ukil had said that she had even raised this issue with Chairman Azim Premji, who had assured her of a fair and impartial investigation.

However, the grievance investigation dismissed her claims and when she resigned in 2014, her resignation was not accepted; she was fired four days later while she was on sick leave.