London, Dec 18 (PTI) A UK-based professional's six-year battle for workplace fairness for women suffering from a chronic illness and challenging a “cutthroat” corporate culture has progressed to a High
Court appeal tribunal hearing in London.
Sanju Pal, a non-resident Indian (NRI) from West Bengal, suffers from endometriosis and her case is among the first to challenge disability discrimination in the workplace related to the illness under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.
Represented by law firm Kilgannon and Partners, the 41-year-old is also challenging an "up or out" model used to dismiss consultants for not being ready for promotion as unfair under the UK’s Employment Rights Act 1996.
“In everyday life, people aren’t judged on their ability to perform a job at the next level up, they are judged against their ability to do their current job," said Pal.
“With the help of my legal team, I want to challenge the fairness of this cutthroat model, which exists in the consulting sector," she said.
An Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing in London last week also heard about the impact of endometriosis, a condition causing pelvic pain that reportedly impacts around 1.5 million women in the UK.
“Endometriosis is a chronic condition, the symptoms of which I was struggling with prior to my dismissal, yet I was found not to be disabled in law due to this condition. We want to challenge that my endometriosis is a disability. My case could be a turning point in the treatment of women with endometriosis in the workplace," she said.
Pal’s case dates back to 2019, when she was dismissed as manager for alleged underperformance after not making promotion to the senior manager level at management consulting firm Accenture (UK) Ltd.
She went on to challenge her dismissal at an employment tribunal, which upheld her unfair dismissal claim in May 2022 and awarded her 4,275 pounds as a “basic award”.
"Accenture's progression-based model in the ‘Client and Market’ career track implies that if an employee isn't deemed to be ready for promotion within a certain period of time at their level, they might face dismissal.
"Ms Pal argues that this model is unfair in law on the basis that the Employment Rights Act 1996 only permits dismissal relating to underperformance in the position the employee held, not on the basis that an employer thinks an employee is not ready for the job at the next level up," Pal's legal team from Kilgannon and Partners explain.
“This is an extremely important argument as it will significantly affect the management consulting industry, where the progression-based model is widely used as a basis to terminate employees,” they claim.
The employment tribunal in 2022 was informed that Pal was diagnosed with endometriosis in September 2018, when she underwent surgery for the removal of painful large cysts on her ovaries. She claimed that her employment was terminated three months after her phased return to work ended. However, the tribunal held that Pal had not proven that her endometriosis had an ongoing substantial effect on her normal day-to-day activities.
"Permission to appeal was granted as it is arguable the tribunal made an error of law in this decision on the basis of the evidence in medical reports, the date of the decision to dismiss and that at the time of Ms Pal’s internal appeal to Accenture in September 2019 she had endometriosis for 12 months,” her lawyers submit.
Pal launched an online campaign on CrowdJustice to fund the high court appeal hearing, which concluded on December 9 and a judgment is expected within the coming weeks.
The professional, who has been recognised with the UK Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award as the founder of Rural India Social Enterprise (RISE) – an education charity that aims to improve education in the UK and rural India, is hoping for a successful outcome to her long-drawn legal battle.
“It has been such an uphill battle to get to this point and I cannot believe that it’s all over. I have kept going so that unlawful practices in the workplace stop and so that employees with chronic health conditions are better supported and have their rights protected,” she said.
Accenture (UK) Ltd, which has maintained that Pal’s treatment was lawful, was approached but is yet to comment. PTI AK ZH
ZH
