EY Pune employee death: BJP leader calls for investigation, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP reacts: ‘…we glorify 72-hour work’

Reacting to the tragic death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant of Ernst & Young (EY), Pune, due to excessive workload, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wondered whether companies could escape legal scrutiny in the US or Europe for imposing long working hours.

“Will @EYnews get away with this kind of a work environment for employees with crushing work hours, toxic environment in countries like USA and Europe? No, they very well know they can’t,” Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote on social platform X.

She also attributed such workplace suicides to human resource (HR) policies of Indian companies that do not provide for a work-life balance.

“In India, we glorify 72-hour work week, we glorify the idea of not having a work life balance, we glorify not taking a holiday, a vacation, a break that’s why most company HR teams do away with that aspect of employee life & its own responsibility,” her post added.

Also read | EY Pune employee’s tragic death reminds people of Narayana Murthy's controversial ‘70-hour work week’ remark

Leaders demand action

Former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeev Chandrasekar said the incident is “disturbing at many levels”.

“I request Govt of India @mansukhmandviya @ShobhaBJP to investigate these allegations made by the mother of unsafe and exploitative work environment that claimed the life of young, full of future Anna Sebastian Perayil,” he wrote on X.

Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale wrote to the union labour secretary to investigate working conditions at EY. The victim, along with every other employee suffering from “callous and toxic atmosphere” deserves justice, he said in a post on X.

Also read | EY slammed over statement on 26-year-old Pune CA’s tragic death: ‘Typical corporate response’

Victim's mother flags 'overwork'

The victim, Anna Sebastian Perayil passed her CA exams in 2023 and worked at EY for four months as part of the Audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune. Her promising career was cut short as she passed away due to what her mother claimed as “glorification of overwork”.

In her letter, Anna’s mother claimed that it was her daughter’s first job, and she was excited about joining the company. Within just four months, however, she succumbed to “excessive workload.” The victim also worked late into the night and on weekends, returned to her PG accommodation completely exhausted on most days. She was also burdened with “backbreaking work” as a newcomer, the letter claimed, noting that nobody from the company attended her funeral.