Shashi Tharoor reacts to EY Pune employee’s death

The politician and MP of Lok Sabha said that he will raise the issue of legislating a fixed calendar for all workplaces in the next Parliament session.

Shashi Tharoor has reacted to the untimely death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, who worked for EY Pune. The politician of the Congress party on Friday reacted to her death, a chartered accountant (CA) from Kerala who worked for Ernst & Young, Pune, saying that Human Rights do not stop at the workplace.

Shashi Tharoor has a “heartrending conversation” with Anna’s father.

Shashi Tharoor wrote on X, “Had a deeply emotional and heartrending conversation with Shri Sibi Joseph, the father of young Anna Sebastian, who passed away after a cardiac arrest, following four months of deeply stressful seven-day weeks of 14 hours a day at Ernst&Young.”

Tharoor will raise the issue of legislating a fixed calendar for all workplaces.

Tharoor said that he would be raising the issue of legislating a fixed calendar for all workplaces, whether in the private or the public sector, that would not exceed eight hours a day, five days a week, in the next Parliament session. He wrote, “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! Will raise this matter at the first opportunity during the next session of parliament.”

Anna Sebastian Perayil died of cardiac arrest on June 20, following excessive workload and poor work culture at EY, as alleged by her mother. Anna’s mother wrote an open letter in which she detailed her daughter’s struggles with anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress due to an overwhelming workload and cited instances where her manager prioritized work over employee well-being. Her mother claimed that Anna worked at EY Pune for four months as part of the audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, and worked late at night and on weekends. She would return to her PG accommodation completely exhausted on most days.

Recently, EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani received massive backlash, but he disagreed that work pressure was the cause of Anna’s death.