Probe On Employee Death Reveals EY Was Operating Without Mandatory Registrations: Reports

The Ernst & Young office in Pune was being operated without a state permit since 2007 according to a senior government official, reported Reuters. This is the same office where a 26-year-old woman employee worked before she dies of alleged extreme workload and faced toxic environment.

As part of the Centre's investigation in the matter related to the death, it was found out that the office did not posses a operation permit.

The Pune office of EY was inspected by Maharashtra's additional labour commissioner, Shailendra Pol, who spoke to Reuters about their findings.

Speaking of the missing mandatory registration under the state's Shops and Establishments Act, Pol reportedly said, "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."

Reportedly, the law mandates not more than nine working hours for each adult employee a day and 48 hours each week.

The law also states that in case of an accident causing the serious bodily injury or death of a worker can lead to imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 rupees or both.

EY India earlier when the incident surfaced to the public eye assured that they follow "the highest importance on the well-being of all employees" and was "taking the family's correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility".

A letter written by the deceased employee's mother went viral on social media last week where she alleged that her daughter Anna Sebastian faced "overwhelming workload" and added, "She worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath."

According to family, Sebastian died of cardiac arrest

Pol mentioned that his team has asked EY for information, including the company's log book for employee hours, welfare policies, to cross check the claims made by the victim's mother.

EY reportedly has around 100,000 employees across its member firms in India.