EY Pune: Work pressure kills young girl; mother says company sent nobody to funeral; here’s audit firm’s first response

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a Chartered Accountant (CA) from Kerala, died nearly four months after joining her first job at EY India, a professional services firm, in Pune. The young CA was physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted after being overburdened with excessive workload, alleges her mother.

Several industry professionals have raised their voices against Anna Sebastian Perayil's death due to the alleged toxic work culture at EY India. Many also reshared a letter apparently from Anna Sebastian's mother, Anita Augustine, to Rajiv Memani, EY India Chairman.

LiveMint could not independently verify the claims made on social media.

In the letter, Perayil's mother, Anita Augustine, shared her daughter's experience at EY India. She wrote that her daughter was a brilliant student who always stood first in college and school examinations. 

She had also cleared the CA examination with distinction. However, Anna started experiencing “anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress soon after joining the company,” read the letter.

Augustine also explained how she witnessed her daughter suffering from the extreme workload and how she sincerely tried to match the unreasonable expectations of her seniors. The letter also mentioned that Anna started suffering from chest pain, which doctors identified as the result of her hectic schedule.

To excel at work, Annie tried her best to manage her work by sleeping late at night and working tirelessly for hours. She even managed to work on her convocation day and could not even spend the day with her parents, claimed Anita in the letter.

No one from EY attended Anna's funeral

“On Saturday, July 6, my husband and I reached Pune to attend Anna's CA Convocation. Since she had been complaining of chest constriction upon reaching her PG late at night (around 1 am) for the past week, we took her to the hospital in Pune. Her ECG was normal, and the cardiologist came to allay our fears, telling us she wasn't getting enough sleep and was eating very late. He prescribed antacids, which reassured us that it wasn't anything serious. Though we had come all the way from Kochi, she insisted on going to work after seeing the doctor, saying there was a lot of work to be done and she wouldn't get leave,” Anita wrote in the letter.

In the letter, Anita also alleged that no one from EY had attended her daughter's funeral and didn't even bother to talk to her about the tragedy. She wrote that the company officials had not responded when she tried to connect with her daughter's senior.

EY has said it is "deeply saddened" by the death of its employee Anna Sebastian and "will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace". The audit firm's first response comes after the parent of Anna Sebastian wrote to EY India Chairman and Regional Managing Partner Rajiv Memani, flagging off the workload that may have led to her untimely death.

"Burdening newcomers with such backbreaking work, making them work day and night even on Sundays has no justification whatsoever...the management took full advantage of the fact that she was new and overwhelmed her with both assigned and unassigned work," said the letter written by the employee's parent. 

What EY said in a statement

“We are deeply saddened by Anna Sebastian's tragic and untimely passing in July 2024, and our deepest condolences go to the bereaved family.

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.

We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the well-being of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 100,000 people across EY member firms in India."