Wipro Forcefully Fired An Employee In 2018; Court Orders Wipro To Reinstate That Employee, Termination Termed Illegal

A huge victory for the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) as the Bengaluru court has ordered Wipro to reinstate a software professional who was allegedly compelled to resign by the company.

The Verdict

The union’s vice president TKS Kutty was the lead lawyer for the said employee.

 In the order dated Friday, June 25, the company — Wipro Technologies has been asked to rehire the person with full wage benefits, including the period for which he was barred from the company.

The verdict was issued under the reference of section 10(1)(c)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act. 

The alleged forced resignation of the employee had taken place on March 2, 2018.According to the union, he was a senior employee, and was forced to resign with no apparent reason.

The order by the 3rd Additional Labour Court said, “The forced resignation of the first party obtained under duress, coercion and without his free will and consent and accepted by the second party management is unsustainable in the law and acceptance of the resignation of the first party by the second party is illegal.”

It added, “Consequently, the second party management is directed to reinstate the first party workman to the original post with continuity of service, full back wages, arrears of pay and such other dues, benefits, etc. from the date of termination till the date of reinstatement for which he is very much entitled to, within a period of 30 days from the date of publication of this award.”

IT Employee Union Rejoice

Reacting on this news, Harpreet Saluja, President, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate NITES said, “We are happy and highly motivated by the judgment of Hon’ble Labour Court of Bengaluru. This will boost the morale of lakhs of employees working in Information Technology sector. Thousands of IT/ITES employees have faced illegal termination, harassment and were forced to resign just for the profitability of the organisation.

This judgement is surely going to be a lesson for all the IT & ITES employers that the employees can’t be fired at will. The justice to our fellow IT colleague from Wipro is a great myth buster that Labour laws aren’t applicable to IT/ITES employees. We congratulate our fellow IT union brothers from Karnataka State IT Employees Union – KITU on this huge success and wish to achieve similar justice for lakhs of IT & ITES employees across nation.”

Help Desk For Affected Employees

KITU has been vociferous about alleged anti-worker behaviour by IT corporations, including behemoths like Cognizant and Accenture, as TNM previously reported.

In order to support the cause of employees, the union has also engaged with the state Labor Department.

 The union had also opened a help desk to address the concerns of affected employees.