Wipro’s ex-employee, Shreya Ukil has filed a case against the IT Gaint asking for a compensation of Rs 10-crore (1 million Pounds) under gender discrimination, unequal remuneration, harassment and unfair dismissal.
Former employee Shreya Ukil, 39, who has worked with Wipro as Sales and Marketing Manager in UK, claims her ‘misogynistic’ male colleagues at the firm’s London office ‘victimised and humiliated’ her.
Miss Ukil, who lives in Kensington, West London, said that she was made to work in “deeply predatory, misogynistic culture” that caused her to have a mental breakdown and led to her sacking. She filed a sexual discrimination and equal pay claim at the Central London Employment Tribunal where she alleged that she was manipulated into having an affair with former senior VP and global BPO head Manoj Punja, who quit the company last year.
According to documents submitted to the tribunal, Indian-born Miss Ukil ‘submitted to aggressive sexual advances’ from her married boss Manoj Punja, 54, after she transferred to London from Wipro’s Bangalore headquarters in 2010.
In February 2013, Miss Ukil became subject to an ‘aggressive planned pursuit’ by one of the vice presidents that amounted to a ‘complete abuse of power’, the tribunal heard. Mr Punja, who has since resigned, is alleged to have told Miss Ukil she was ‘like one of those seductive dancers from Indian mythology, Apsara, who tested the celibacy of the great saints’. ‘He once told me the silk top I was wearing was too tight for my body shape as I had the curves of a Russian body and big breasts,’ Miss Ukil says in her statement.
Miss Ukil says she was ‘discriminated against, undermined, marginalised, disrespected, victimised and humiliated’ by the men, who were reportedly paid double her salary despite being her ‘equals’. She also claims that she was bullied by her team leader Vinay Firake, who allegedly blocked her promotion attempts. “I was also paid far less (75,000 pounds a year) than 150,000 pounds per annum paid to male colleagues,” Ukil charged the outsourcing major.
Miss Ukil said Wipro has ‘a deeply predatory, misogynistic culture in which men are encouraged to have affairs, attend strip clubs, shout the loudest and support each other.
Terming the atmosphere for women techies at the office “toxic,” Ukil said they (women employees) were called ’emotional’, ‘psychotic’ or ‘menopausal’ if they were confident, capable and express viewpoints. Women who support them are called “lesbians.”
Mr. Punja resigned on July 31, 2013 giving a ‘vague reason,’ she says. Miss Ukil, meanwhile, gave formal notice of resignation on September 3, 2014. It was rejected and a week later she was fired for gross misconduct, she claims.
“I was punished for submitting to those advances and daring to speak out,” Ukil stated in her statement to the tribunal and sought damages from the company for harassment and unfair dismissal.
According to sources, Punja is currently based in the US as vice president of Bengaluru-based networking major Microland Ltd.