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LONDON:
When Shreya Ukil took Indian IT giant Wipro to court in 2014 on the ground of allegations of sexual discrimination, unfair dismissal and verbal abuse by her colleagues in London Office of Wipro.
London city’s employment tribunal ruled in her favour against Wipro. Its judgement, says there is evidence against
“some in the senior leadership in Wipro” of being ‘sexist and unfair’.
Wipro, however, said in a statement, “Wipro Limited is pleased the UK Employment Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of the complainant from the services of the organization as appropriate and rejected claims of adverse cultural attitude towards women in the organization.”
Ms Ukil, Ex-Wipro’s Head of Sales, Europe, moved the tribunal in September 2014, three months after she was terminated. After working 7 years in Bangalore Wipro she went to London and worked last as Wipro’s Head of Sales, Europe.
In her lawsuit, she complained that she was paid half of the salary what her male counterparts in London use to made – close to 160,000 pounds a year.
She had been subjected to sexist remarks by colleagues who called her “shrill’, ‘shallow’, ‘un-European’ and ‘bitch’ etc. among other harassing names.
“Women who are confident, capable and express their viewpoints are often called emotional, menopausal by some male peers,” Ms Ukil, describing how she was harassed, cornered and even blocked from moving to other roles in Europe.
Tribunal found that her complaint was right but no physical sexual assalt was there while her termination was “unfair” but not “wrongful”.
This is high time all organizations must review policies for protection of any sex discrimination and unlawful practice.
The tribunal will decide next month how much Wipro should pay Ms Ukil for what she went through, mentally and socially not just financially.
“It is very good news for Shreya Ukil… It is for companies like Wipro to judge how damaging this is and learn lessons on how to deal with internal complaints in a fair manner, ” said Kiran Daurka, Ms Ukil’s lawyer.
