EY employee death: Centre probing claims of exploitative environment

NT Bureau, Agencies Pune: The Union government on Thursday announced that it is investigating allegations of an exploitative work environment at Ernst & Young’s India offices. This came on the heels of allegations of unsafe and exploitative work environment levelled by Anita Augustine, the mother of Anna Sebastian Perayil, an employee of the accounting firm in Pune, who passed away in July. In a letter to Ernst & Young India Chairman Rajiv Memani, Augustine attributed her daughter’s death to “backbreaking work” conditions at the company, reported the Business Standard.

Shobha Karandlaje, the Union minister of state for Labour and Employment, said on Thursday that an investigation into the allegations of exploitative work environment at the firm is underway. “We are committed to ensuring justice and the labour ministry has officially taken up the complaint,” she said in a social media post. Karandlaje’s statement on X was made in response to a post by BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who shared a news article about Perayil and described her death as “disturbing on many levels”.

request the Govt of India…to investigate these allegations made by the mother on an unsafe and exploitative work environment that claimed the life of young Anna Sebastian Perayil,” Chandrasekhar wrote. In her email, Augustine stated that Perayil had passed her CA exams in 2023 and begun working at EY Pune as an executive in March 2024. “Anna was always a fighter, from childhood through her academic years, where she excelled in everything she did...She worked tirelessly at EY, giving her all to meet the demands placed on her.

However, the workload, new environment, and long hours took a toll on her physically, mentally, and emotionally.'' ''She began experiencing anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress soon after joining, but she kept pushing herself, believing that hard work and perseverance were key to success,” read the letter. Augustine said that many employees had quit the firm due to ‘excessive workload’, and that her daughter’s manager had encouraged her to ‘stick around and change everyone’s opinion about the team’. “Her manager would often reschedule meetings during cricket matches and assign her work at the end of the day, adding to her stress...When she voiced her concerns, she was met with a dismissive response, ‘You can work at night, that’s what we all do’.

We told her to quit but she wanted to learn and gain new exposure. However, the overwhelming pressure proved too much for her,” she wrote. On Wednesday, Ernst & Young India said in a statement that Perayil’s “promising career was cut short in this tragic manner and is an irreparable loss for all of us”. “While no measure can compensate for the loss experienced by the family, we have provided all assistance as we always do in such times of distress and will continue to do so,” it added.