Shobha Karandlaje, Union Labour Minister
“A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway,” Labour Minister Shobha Karandlaje posted, on X
NEW DELHI: India is investigating the work environment at Big Four accounting firm EY, the labour minister said on Thursday, after the death of a 26-year-old associate worker was blamed on stress by her mother who demanded accountability.
Sebastian,who worked with S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, died of cardiac arrest in Pune this July. Her mother this month wrote to EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani, flagging the “glorification” of overwork at the multinational consulting firm.
“Whether it is a white-collar job or any other job, worker or employee at any level… if a country’s citizen dies, then we obviously feel sad about it. An investigation is underway in the matter and steps will be taken on the basis of the investigation,” Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said here on Thursday.
Perayil died in July and was overworked with a “backbreaking” load as a new employee, which affected her “physically, emotionally, and mentally”, her mother Anita Augustine wrote in a letter to EY’s India chairman which went viral on social media.
“A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway,” Labour Minister Shobha Karandlaje posted, on X earlier.
A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway. We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint,” said Karandlaje.
She wrote this on a X post by former union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who had shared a news article on Perayil and called the death “disturbing at many levels”.
“I rqst 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,” Chandrasekhar wrote.
EY said it placed “the highest importance on the well-being of all employees”. “We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility,” it said in a statement.
The accounting giant said it works with about 100,000 people at its member firms in India and that Perayil had worked at one such firm for four months.
The need for better efforts to shield employees in high-pressure jobs from faltering physical and mental health has been discussed widely also after the death of a junior banker at Bank of America in May, and with JPMorgan creating a new role to tackle concerns.
India’s Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), a union of IT employees, on Thursday wrote to the labour and interior ministries seeking an independent probe into Perayil’s death, who it claimed took her own life.
Police in the western Indian city of Pune, where Perayil worked, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cause of her death.
NITES has also called for a wider review into working conditions in India’s IT and finance sectors.
With inputs from agencies
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