NRI woman wins appeal for workplace fairness over chronic illness in UK court

London, Jan 19 (PTI): An NRI professional on Monday won her High Court appeal in London after a six-year battle for workplace fairness for women suffering from a chronic illness.

Sanju Pal, a non-resident Indian from West Bengal, suffers from endometriosis and her case is expected to set a precedent on disability discrimination in the workplace related to the illness under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.

Represented by law firm Kilgannon & Partners, the 41-year-old was also challenging a controversial “up or out” progression-based model used to dismiss consultants for not being ready for promotion as 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 was handed down.  The EAT concluded that an Employment Tribunal’s reasoning on disability discrimination due to endometriosis was “wholly inadequate” and therefore the decision cannot stand.   “Her evidence that she was affected by endometriosis was supported by the medical evidence,” the EAT judgment reads.  “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 states.  Endometriosis is a condition causing pelvic pain that reportedly impacts around 1.5 million women in the UK.

The EAT concluded that the determinations that Pal was not disabled and that she was not subject to discrimination because of something arising in consequence of disability cannot stand, her lawyers highlight.

Having won her appeal on all grounds, the matter will be sent back to a newly constituted tribunal to ensure confidence that the issue of disability will be considered afresh.  Pal’s case dates back to 2019, when she was dismissed as manager for alleged underperformance after not making promotion to 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 but awarded her just 4,275 pounds as a “basic award”.  The ground of appeal relating to the compensation is also set to be reviewed, in order to consider what would have happened if Accenture had complied with their policy requirements to undertake an independent investigation and have independent decision makers prior to dismissing Pal.  The company’s progression-based model implies that if an employee is not deemed to be ready for promotion within a certain period of time at their level, they might face dismissal.   “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 stated.  The High Court appeal panel, presided by Judge James Tayler, also noted that the Employment Tribunal that heard Pal’s claim in 2022 had formed an “extremely adverse view” of her.   The professional had launched an online campaign on CrowdJustice to fund the appeal, which was heard on December 9, 2025. Pal, 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, expressed relief at the conclusion of this long-drawn struggle.   “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 said it is “unable to comment about an ongoing legal matter”. PTI AK ZH GRS GRS GRS

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