EY Pune Employee Death Case

Ensuring that employees have a healthy work-life balance is the company's responsibility. However, as a result of the intense rivalry, more people are starting to work. Although terms like "layoff" were infrequent in the past, they are now often used. Additionally, workers are increasingly putting in more effort to keep themselves safer than others. Up until now, we had heard about overwork-related deaths in Japan. We refer to these as karoshi. These agonizing deaths are now also happening in India. An identical incident has befallen a 26-year-old worker at Ernst & Young Pune. Heartbroken by her daughter's passing, the mother penned a heartfelt email to the CEO of the company in India, pleading with him to refrain from exalting excessive effort.

At Ernst & Young Pune, Anna Sebastian Perayil was employed

Pune-based Ernst & Young is one of the top accounting firms. This company employed Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old Kerala based chartered accountant. She passed away recently. Currently, Rajiv Memani, the CEO of EY Pune, has received an emotional email from her mother, Anita Augustine. She claimed that the company's human rights ideals are unreal in it. In the company, hard labor is regarded as beneficial. Her daughter was consequently under stress. Eventually, four months after joining, She passed away. 

This year in March, She began working at her first job

In 2023, Anna Sebastian successfully passed the CPA test. She began working for Ernst & Young Pune in March 2024. She was trying hard to meet the company's expectations because this was her first employment. Their emotional, mental, and physical health were all impacted. According to Anita Augustine's writing, she used to sleep less. She was experiencing stress. Still, She continued to labor. She believed that hard work would lead her to success.

Anna Sebastian Perayil put in a lot of overtime, even on the weekends

According to Anna Sebastian's mother, numerous workers at EY Pune have quit from their positions as a result of excessive workloads. Anna's supervisor increased her pressure after that. The meeting time was rescheduled. She was frequently assigned tasks exclusively after office hours. With the exception of weekends, her daughter used to work late into the night. Even the company officials made fun of her. She had once been assigned an assignment like this at night with an early morning deadline. She answered, "We all do that." 

There were no firm employees present at the funeral of Anna Sebastian Perayil

"My daughter was a fighter," She stated in her note. She refused our requests for her to quit the position. She had a lot of strain on her while working. She was powerless to decline. For her, this was a new city. It was a novel language. She went too far and isn't here with us anymore. She claimed that not even EY Pune staff members showed up for her daughter's funeral. I attempted to contact her managers, but I received no response. She has counseled the business to look out for the workers' health. The Indian government has not yet responded to inquiries on this matter. 

Her mother had been upset that no one from the corporation showed up for Anna's funral after she passed away. EY's thoughts on this have now been expressed in a statement. 

According to the company, Anna was a member of the Pune audit team. This unfortunate event brought an abrupt end to her promising career. We are doing everything in our power to support the family at this trying time, even though we are unable to make up for this loss. We prioritize the health of our workers above all else, and we'll keep trying to give the 10,000 employees of our member.

Are companies in India safe workplaces?

In fact, the term "karoshi" was used in Japan in the 1970s. It denotes overworked death. The Japanese seemed to turn their heartache into enthusiasm as they worked, as if to forget the agony of the nuclear explosion and their defeat in the Second World War. People began working so extensively that office deaths occurred. A lot of pros had also taken photos of folks leaving their workplaces and heading home. The Man Machine was the name of the TV show. It depicts people who are depressed, sleepy, and even standing. We currently have a comparable circumstance in our corporates.