“Reinstate employee, pay back wages”: Court to Wipro

There was much cheer and celebration amongst members of the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), when a Wipro employee who was forced to resign in 2018 was ordered to be reinstated.

A Bengaluru court ordered Wipro to reinstate a senior software professional who was allegedly forced to quit for no apparent reason, in March, 2018. The union’s vice president was the advocate for the concerned employee.

The order by the 3rd Additional Labour Court said that a forced resignation of an employee, which is obtained under pressure, and without the employee’s consent cannot be considered legal. It is a resignation obtained by coercion, and therefore, not acceptable.

Wipro has been instructed to not only reinstate the said employee to his original post, but also pay full back wages, arrears and other benefits and dues, from March 2018 — the date of resignation — till the date of his reinstatement. The Company has been asked to pay him his dues within 30 days.

This court order will no doubt boost the confidence and morale of those working in the IT sector. During the pandemic, many employees have been terminated illegally and forced to resign under the pretext of non-performance.

Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) and KITU have been working relentlessly demanding justice for such employees. Earlier, KITU had taken up the cause of the employees of Accenture and Cognizant, who had lost their jobs.