“Days after the alleged overwork-related death of a woman employee from Ernst & Young (EY) India in Pune, another woman employee from HDFC Bank in Lucknow has reportedly died due to work pressure, according to a report by News18.
The deceased, Sadaf Fatima, served as an additional deputy vice-president at HDFC Bank’s Vibuti Khand branch in Gomti Nagar. Her colleagues stated that Fatima collapsed in the office after falling from her chair. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, she was declared dead on arrival, and her body was sent for a postmortem.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, reacting to Fatima’s death, criticized the growing work pressure across both government and private sectors, saying people are being forced to work under extreme conditions. “The situation of workers has become worse than that of bonded laborers, as they don’t even have the right to speak. The government’s role is to solve problems, not offer baseless advice,” Yadav wrote on X.
He also took aim at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent remarks about teaching the youth stress ‘management’ to cope with work pressures. Yadav argued that instead of improving working conditions, the minister’s advice only aggravates the stress of young workers. He urged that if the government cannot bring relief, it should refrain from adding to the public’s frustration with insensitive suggestions.
What happened at EY Pune?
Anna Sebastian Perayil, who passed her CA exams in 2023, had worked at EY India for four months as part of the audit team at S R Batliboi, an EY Global member firm in Pune. Her mother attributed her death to the company’s “glorification of overwork.”
In a letter, Anna’s mother explained that it was her daughter’s first job, and she had been enthusiastic about starting her career. However, within just four months, she was overwhelmed by the “excessive workload.” She worked late nights and weekends, often returning to her accommodation utterly exhausted. The letter further alleged that as a newcomer, Anna was assigned burdensome tasks, and no one from the company attended her funeral.”
