A senior technology executive has been granted the opportunity to seek Rs 9,637 crore in compensation following her dismissal after an incident during a work trip. This case centers on allegations of disability discrimination and, if successful, could result in the largest payout ever issued by a British employment tribunal, according to the Independent.
During the trip, she had been drinking alcohol and could not access her room after forgetting her key. She had to sleep in a sauna that night. Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon dismissed the application.
In 2025, the Birmingham Employment Tribunal found that Burns was dismissed as a result of her disabilities, and she won her disability discrimination case. Shannon Burns, who has ADHD, was working as vice-president of engineering at Gitpod when she attended a team-building event in Lofer, Austria, in April 2023. Burns was dismissed from her role in June 2023. She is now seeking around Rs 9,637 in compensation based on calculations of her lost future earnings. Gitpod had applied to restrict her claim to Rs 12.68 crore and sought a Rs 1.27 lakh deposit order, arguing that any claim above Rs 12.68 crore had little reasonable prospect of success. The tribunal heard that Burns had 0.85 per cent shares in Gitpod. Judge Wedderspoon said the shares could be worth Rs 32.61 crore now and Rs 267.13 crore in four years if Gitpod was acquired for Rs 3,836.76 crore by OpenAI.
After the trip, Gitpod CEO Johannes Landgraf said he was concerned about her “lack of professional accountability”. This is the profile she was using when she was associated with Gitpod: @karishannon , according to Grok. The company described her Rs 9,637 claim as “extraordinary” and called the calculations “palpable nonsense”. She said Burns had an exceptionally high pay history and that her claim included losses from salary and equity. The tribunal said the amount claimed was highly unusual but could not conclude that Burns’ valuation had little reasonable prospect of success without expert evidence.
Her bio previously mentioned her role as VP of Engineering at Gitpod.
Burns is also claiming amounts for injury to feelings and an ACAS Uplift. She has since left the tech industry and is retraining to become a therapist. Because of her disabilities, her lawyer Tara Grossman said the outcome was a success for Burns and described the Rs 9,637 crore calculation as an assessment of what she could have earned if she had not been dismissed.
