Last week 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil, an employee working for Ernst and Young, one of the big four consulting and accounting firms tragically passed away, a death that her mother, in a letter to the company blamed on the company’s exploitative work culture that drove her daughter to death.
The incident and the the mother’s letter, especially the paragraphs pointing out the fact that no one from the company attended her funeral, quickly went viral on social media prompting the company to issue a response, to commiserate with her family for her passing but refused to accept any responsibility for her death much less admit that anything was wrong with its work culture.
Since then, the matter has reached the central government, which has launched a probe into the incident. More than that, it has shone a spotlight on the work culture in corporate India that young employees especially, interns, trainees and freshers are subjected to. Horror stories of employees being forced to work up to 16-hour shifts, to make themselves available on weekends, to be available to receive work-related calls at odd hours, and more importantly, to connect such willingness to progress up the corporate ladder. It is not just international companies that are accused of such a work culture. Not too long ago the editor of a prominent English daily in Mumbai was accused of setting unrealistic expectations on the reporters leading to one to succumb to a massive heart attack within the office building.
There is no doubt that young people joining the workforce are eager to prove themselves to their employers early in their careers both out of a desire to create an early good impression as well as to start their careers on a positive note. However, what also drives the young people to give in to the demands of bosses for working overtime is the fear that failing to do so will affect not just their personal and professional relationship with the organisation but also that it will be held against them when it comes to promotions and raises at the time of appraisal. However, what is especially alarming is how normalised such a work culture has become and how the lack of an effective redressal mechanism means that employees have only two choices facing them -- to comply or to quit.
As a country that has a large and growing skilled workforce that is especially benefiting from the opportunities made possible in a globalised world where employees sitting in India are providing services to client companies based abroad, India needs to carefully avoid the tag of harbouring a ‘sweatshop’ work environment.
More than that, however, the government needs to take responsibility for its young people and not leave them in the hands of slave drivers who have set them impossible targets, without any reliable and effective legal recourse. No doubt there are laws governing working conditions, lengths of shifts, the necessity to pay overtime, etc. However, these labour laws are especially inaccessible to those working in the corporate sector in the absence of working unions and litigating for rights is next to impossible given the current legal regime and the possibility that initiating such litigation will eventually lead to a breakdown of the relationship between the employer and the employee, something every employee is eager to avoid.
With an effective system, many of the problems can be sorted out and addressed. The system needs to be one that enforces the rights of workers in a manner in which the employers fear the law and not the system of complete unaccountability that currently prevails.
