by B. R. GOWANI
26 year old Anna Sebastian Perayil died an untimely death
she was a chartered accountant (CA, equivalent to CPA) from Kerala
the company she worked for was SR Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global
EY Global/Deloitte/ KPMG/PwC are viewed as the Big Four accounting firms
since 2007, SR Batliboi has been in operation without a state permit!
the purpose of the permit is to govern work-hours of the employees
the company undoubtedly committed a crime here
but an equal culprit is the government there …
the death was work-related — over-worked, over-tired, over-stressed
the victim’s mother Anita Augustine wrote a letter to EY’s Rajiv Memani:
“Anna worked tirelessly at EY, giving her all to meet the demands placed on her. However, the workload, new environment, and long hours took a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally. She began experiencing anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress soon after joining, but she kept pushing herself, believing that hard work and perseverance were the keys to success.”
within the four months that she worked at Ernst & Young,
she not only burnt out, but her body gave up and tragically, Anna died
as is the norm for every spokesperson in all fields to express regret …
“saddened” at the “tragedy,” will “investigate” and “punish” the “culprits”
India’s labour minister Shobha Karandlaje tweeted on X
“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. We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint.”
EY India chairman Rajiv Memani denied company’s responsibilty:
“We have around one lakh [100,000] employees. There is no doubt each one has to work hard.”
has Memani ever asked how those 100,000 are faring with the workload?
what state are they mentally and physically?
by his stance from his statement, he seems obviously not interested…
how much “hard work” should employees put in?
one of Anna Sebastian’s co-worker puts it like this:
“We average 16 hours a day in the busy season, and 12 hours a day in non-busy seasons. No weekends or public holidays are off. Annually EY voluntarily announces a day off to rejuvenate their employees. And yes, you guessed it right! Even that is not off. We work on that day as well – from office! Overwork is the only way to get promoted, do and make others do it.”
many other workers with the Big Four expressed similar views
the International Labor Organization says Indians work long hours
why overwork?
so that the rich can luxuriously live off the labor of employees like Anna?
this is a similar story all over the World
people like Memani’s role models are people richer than him …
such as Gautam Adani, Mukesh Adani, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, …
to reach that spot they desire
they have to exploit tens of thousands of Annas
and not worry about the consequences on these employees
because, after all,
labor is plentiful, jobs are scarce, and all fatalities are easily replaced …
B. R. Gowani can be reacched at brgowani@hotmail.com