AN NRI (non-residential Indian) professional on Monday won her High Court appeal in London after a six-year legal battle over workplace fairness linked to a chronic illness.
Sanju Pal, from India’s West Bengal, suffers from endometriosis. Her case is expected to have implications for disability discrimination in the workplace under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.
Represented by law firm Kilgannon & Partners, the 41-year-old also challenged a progression-based “up or out” model used to dismiss consultants who are not considered ready for promotion, arguing it was unfair under the UK’s Employment Rights Act 1996.
“Ms Sanju Pal succeeds in appeal against (global management consulting firm) Accenture at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT),” her lawyers said in a statement after the judgment.
The EAT said the Employment Tribunal’s reasoning on disability discrimination related to endometriosis was “wholly inadequate” and that the decision could not stand.
“Her evidence that she was affected by endometriosis was supported by the medical evidence,” the EAT judgment said.
“The Employment Tribunal also failed to consider whether the condition would continue to have substantial adverse effect on the claimant's ability to undertake normal day-to-day activities absent medical treatment. The issue of disability will have to be considered entirely afresh,” it added.
Endometriosis is a condition that causes pelvic pain and is reported to affect around 1.5 million women in the UK.
The EAT concluded that the findings that Pal was not disabled, and that she was not subjected to discrimination arising from disability, could not stand, her lawyers said.
After succeeding on all grounds of appeal, the case will now be sent back to a newly constituted tribunal so that the issue of disability can be reconsidered afresh.
Pal’s case dates back to 2019, when she was dismissed as a manager for alleged underperformance after failing to secure promotion to senior manager at Accenture (UK) Ltd. She challenged her dismissal at an Employment Tribunal, which upheld her unfair dismissal claim in May 2022 but awarded her 4,275 pounds as a “basic award”.
The ground of appeal relating to compensation will also be reviewed to assess what would have happened if Accenture had followed its policy requirement to conduct an independent investigation and use independent decision makers before dismissing Pal.
The company’s progression-based model allows for dismissal if an employee is not considered ready for promotion within a specified period at their level.
“Upholding this ground of appeal, the EAT confirmed that an employee can only be dismissed for capability relating to ‘the work of the kind which he was employed by the employer to do’ and that this is to be assessed on the basis of the work required under the contract of employment. This meant that Ms Pal's dismissal under the progression-based model may not be a potentially fair reason under the heading of ‘capability’,” Kilgannon & Partners said.
The High Court appeal panel, led by Judge James Tayler, also noted that the Employment Tribunal that heard Pal’s claim in 2022 had taken an “extremely adverse view” of her.
Pal had launched an online CrowdJustice campaign to fund the appeal, which was heard on December 9 last year.
Pal, who has received the UK Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award as the founder of Rural India Social Enterprise (RISE), an education charity working in the UK and rural India, said she felt relieved after the ruling.
“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 has maintained that Pal’s treatment was lawful and has been approached for comment following the judgment.
(With inputs from agencies)
