Wipro lands in soup, faces 1.2 mn pound discrimination suit by an ex-employee

A former Wipro employee Shreya Ukil, who works at the India’s third largest software company's London office, has filed a suit claiming 1.2 million pounds in damages, alleging that she was subjected to severe sexual harassment by male colleagues, faced gender discrimination, was getting an unequal pay and also faced unfair dismissal.

As per the UK-based The Telegraph, Ukil had alleged that she was subjected to a "deeply predatory, misogynistic culture" at Wipro.

Ukil, 39, who worked as the sales and marketing manager, has filed a suit at Central London Employment Tribunal alleging that she was discriminated in terms of her pay in comparison to male colleagues at similar positions. Shreya has also accused Manoj Punja, ex-Wipro VP and former global BPO head at Wipro, who was her manager of influencing her to have an affair with him. Punja had resigned from Wipro last year.

According to an Economic Times report, this case is not the first such instance of sexual harassment against women in the IT industry. Earlier in September, two-thirds of companies on the Nifty, a 50-stock benchmark index of the NSE, had reported that out of total 415 cases of sexual harassment in the previous financial year, 80% of these were reported in information technology (IT) and banking firms.

In an email response to ET, Wipro has strongly dismissed the sexual discrimination and harassment allegations from former employee Shreya Ukil. The software exporter termed the allegations as "insidious and defamatory."

Terming accusations made by Ukil as "scurrilous," a Wipro spokesperson told the business daily that both Ukil and former BPO head Manoj Punja were terminated from the company after it was established "beyond reasonable doubt" that both of them had violated the company's code of conduct.
(Image: Wipro)