EY employee death: Not taking any legal step, says father

Kochi, Sep 19 (IANS) Sibi Joseph, the father of Pune-based Chartered Accountant (CA) Anna Sebastian Perayil (26), who died due to "work-related stress", on Thursday said the family has no plans to take legal steps against the company.

Perayil, who worked with S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, at Yerawada in Maharashtra's Pune, passed away on July 21. Her mother had claimed that Perayil died after being burdened with a “backbreaking workload” and “work stress”.

However, Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje has assured that a proper probe would be conducted. “Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil. A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway,” said Karandlaje in a post on X.

The MoS said this in response to a post by BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who described Anna's death as "very sad but also 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 a young, full of future Anna Sebastian Perayil,” Chandrasekhar said.

The cause of her death, according to her colleagues, was cardiac arrest.

Joseph said his daughter was a very active person and used to play badminton and jog with him when she was at home.

“She cleared her CA in February this year and in March joined the firm. We used to speak to her every day and her major grouse was the extreme work pressure. She was engaged in an audit of Bajaj Auto. Most of the days she used to work till 12.30 in the night and used to get back to her paying accommodation by 1.30 a.m,” said Joseph.

“She was getting hardly any sleep and was unable to eat proper food also due to her work schedule. She used to complain about this often and it reached a point that we told her to quit the job. But she said she would continue to work as this was a reputed firm,” added Joseph.

“In July we visited her and we took her to a cardiologist and after the check, he said my daughter was perfectly healthy and all that she lacked was proper sleep and proper food,” added Joseph.

“My wife wrote the letter to the chairman to ensure that even though our daughter is gone, such a thing should not happen to any other person. We are not going to take any legal steps against the company also,” said Joseph.

The company, however, denied that “work pressure” could have led to her death.

“We have around one lakh employees. There is no doubt each one has to work hard. Anna worked with us only for four months. She was allotted work like any other employee. We don’t believe that work pressure could have claimed her life,” Rajiv Memani, EY India chairman.

The company also issued a statement condoling the death.

“Anna was a part of the Audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune for a brief period of four months, joining the firm on 18 March 2024. That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us. While no measure can compensate for the loss experienced by the family, we have provided all the assistance as we always do in such times of distress and will continue to do so,” Memani said.