EY staffer’s death | Will raise issue of workplace calendar in Parliament: Tharoor

As the public furore continues over the death of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil, an employee of Ernst & Young (EY), allegedly due to work overload, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has suggested a 40-hour work week.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP took to X to express his views on Friday (September 20). He said he had a “deeply emotional and heartrending” conversation with Anna’s father, Sibi Joseph.

Tharoor wrote that Anna passed away after a cardiac arrest, following “four months of deeply stressful seven-day weeks of 14 hours a day” at EY.

Legislation needed on fixed work calendar

He added that Sibi Joseph had suggested, and he agreed, that he should “raise the issue of legislating, through Parliament, a fixed calendar for all workplaces, whether in the private sector or the public, that would not exceed eight hours a day, five days a week”.

“Inhumanity at the workplace must be legislated out of existence with stringent punishment and fines for offenders. Human rights do not stop at the workplace,” the Congress MP wrote.

He ended his post by saying that he would raise the issue at the “first opportunity” during the next session of Parliament, which is likely to be in December.

Parents had advised Anna to quit

Anna, a chartered accountant from Kerala, worked at EY’s Pune office for four months, and died in July. Sibi Joseph told the media this week that she would work till 12.30 am.

He added that he and his wife had advised Anna to resign, but she had insisted that he would earn valuable professional exposure from this stint.

He also claimed that Anna had raised the issue of extreme work pressure with the assistant manager, but no action was taken. “They insisted on working even at night,” he added.

No plan to sue company

The family alleged that the company responded only after Anna’s mother’s letter, written to EY India chairman Rajiv Memani this month, went viral.

In it, Anita Augustine flagged the “glorification” of overwork at the global consulting firm.

She also rued in the letter that no one from the company had even bothered to attend Anna’s funeral, which the family found hurtful and rude.

Sibi Joseph said they had no plans to sue the company but they also do not want anyone else to face the same fate as their daughter and them. “We don’t want the beginners in such corporate companies to face similar situations,” he asserted.

Company’s claims

While the Centre has said it is probing the circumstances that led to Anna’s death, EY on Wednesday issued a statement saying it was deeply saddened by Anna’s “tragic and untimely” passing.

The company said Anna worked at one of its member firms — SR Batliboi — for four months.

The company also claimed that though it has been in touch with the family since Anna’s death, her family wrote to the company much later, complaining about her “excessive workload”.

Memani also issued a separate statement on Thursday, regretting that no one from the company attended Anna’s funeral. He claimed he “would not rest” until a more harmonious workplace atmosphere is achieved.

“I truly regret the fact that we missed being present at Anna’s funeral. This is completely alien to our culture. It has never happened before; it will never happen again,” he said.