Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed his sympathies to the family of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old EY employee who reportedly died of work-related stress. During a video call with her family, Gandhi assured them that he would fight for improved working conditions for professionals across India.
Anna, a chartered accountant from Kerala working in EY's Pune office, passed away on July 20. Her family has blamed excessive workload and stress at her job for her untimely death, a claim that has ignited a nationwide conversation about corporate work culture and employee well-being.
In an official statement released on Saturday, Gandhi praised the courage of Anna's family for speaking out on this issue and said he would take up the cause in Parliament.
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"Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi spoke to the parents of Anna Sebastian today via a video call arranged by the Chairman of All India Professionals' Congress Praveen Chakravarty during his visit to their home in Kochi," the statement read.
"Rahul Gandhi offered his sympathies at Anna's sudden and tragic demise. Further, he lauded the family's courage and selflessness to speak up at this extremely difficult moment about this issue in the larger interest of improving working conditions for the millions of professionals in India," said the statement.
"Rahul Gandhi assured them that he would personally fight for this cause in his capacity as the Leader of the Opposition. He instructed the AIPC Chairman to create an awareness movement in Anna's memory for all working professionals in India," said the official statement.
"Following Gandhi's instructions, AIPC will announce a helpline soon to collect information from corporate professionals about issues related to work stress and toxic work culture. Post this, AIPC will seek to come up with draft guidelines for better working conditions for professionals in the corporate sector," it added.
Anna’s father, Sibi Joseph, shared that they had urged her to resign due to the overwhelming stress she faced at work, but Anna decided to continue because she believed the job at EY provided valuable exposure. “She used to cry on the phone that she could not handle the stress. We asked her to quit, but she wanted to continue. Tragically, she collapsed on July 21 and died before reaching the hospital,” Joseph said.
EY issued a statement expressing sadness over Anna’s death and emphasized its commitment to employee well-being. “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,” the firm said. The firm assured that it has provided assistance to the family and will continue to do so.