Pune: Ernst & Young (EY) India has finally responded to the death of their 26-year-old employee, Anna Sebastian Perayil amidst growing backlash on social media.

EY India released the statement and stated that they are ‘deeply saddened’ by the tragic death of their employee. “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,” said EY India.

In their statement, EY India has mentioned that Anna was part of the Audit team at SR Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune for almost four months, she had joined the firm on March 18, 2024. They have termed the incident as ‘irreparable loss’.

EY has further assured to give higher importance to their employees’ 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,” added EY India.

The response by EY India came after it faced backlash by the netizens. The internet was stormed by growing outrage after letter of Anna’s mother, Anita Augustine to EY India Chairman, Rajiv Memani came into light. The letter received widespread response with people asserting on importance of healthy work-place culture and mental well-being.

In her letter, Anita Augustine had mentioned that Anna succumbed to death due to ‘work stress”. She mentioned that it was Anna’s first job and she was thrilled to be part of such prestigious company. According to her mother, Anna worked tirelessly and gave her all in this job. Anita further stated that the workload, new environment and long working hours had started taking toll on her physically, emotionally & mentally. She experienced sleeplessness, anxiety and stress as soon as she joined the company. Anna’s mother blamed all these conditions as reason for her daughter’s tragic demise.

However, EY India’s response also faced severe backlash from people. Netizens weren’t happy with the statement released by the EY India. They called it “typical corporate response” and slammed the work culture that lead to Anna’s tragic demise.

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