EY Office Whose Employee Died Has No Permit That Regulates Work Hours: Report

The Ernst & Young (EY) office in Pune, which employed a 26-year-old who allegedly died after facing a high workload, has operated since 2007 without a state permit which regulates work hours, a senior government official told Reuters.

EY faces scrutiny over the death of audit executive Anna Sebastian Perayil, which her mother blamed on a “backbreaking” workload in a letter to EY India’s chairman.

The incident has already sparked a central government investigation.

The need for better efforts to shield employees in high-pressure jobs from faltering physical and mental health has been discussed widely after the death of a junior banker at Bank of America in May, and with JPMorgan last week creating a new role to tackle such concerns.

Maharashtra’s additional labour commissioner, Shailendra Pol, whose team inspected the EY office in Pune, said it was operating without a mandatory registration under the state’s Shops and Establishments Act.

The law caps the maximum working hours for adults at nine hours each day and 48 hours each week.

“The company applied for a registration with the labour department only in February 2024 and we rejected it because it had not applied since 2007 when it started this office,” Shailendra Pol told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that EY has been given seven days to explain the laps