H00 Labour

corporate employees or daily wage laborers (the salary scales and work conditions may differ), workers in all sectors are being exploited and subjected to immense pressure to meet unrealistic targets. - - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/xbPv9hpvubkd1Qfu/ - https://www.instagram.com/p/DATDoCQsqgK/
  
  The heart-wrenching letter written by the mother of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a chartered accountant at Ernst and Young, addressed to the company's CEO Rajiv Memani, regarding her daughter's death due to overwork and stress has once again highlighted the exploitative conditions faced by workers under this system. Anna died from exhaustion, overwork, and anxiety caused by long working hours and immense work pressure. Like many others, she too attended a prestigious institute, paying lakhs in fees, and secured a corporate job only to find herself working nearly the entire day to prove her worth to her bosses.   
  
  Her tragic death is a stark reminder that today, whether corporate employees or daily wage laborers (the salary scales and work conditions may differ), workers in all sectors are being exploited and subjected to immense pressure to meet unrealistic targets. The cut-throat competition, illusions of a comfortable life, rising inflation, and the constant threat of being laid off and thrown into the sea of unemployed masses force people to resort to extreme measures to maintain their work performance. Like countless others, Anna lost her life trying to survive in a capitalist system that murders workers daily and discards them after use.  
  
  The fact that none of her colleagues or bosses attended her funeral reveals how hollow and transactional the so-called "family-like" atmosphere at workplaces truly is, and how utterly lonely and miserable young people have become in this unjust system. Anna's mother's letter serves as a reminder that capitalism treats workers as mere cogs in the machine—easily replaced when deemed irrelevant—and denies them humane treatment even in death. Rajiv Memani, in a desperate attempt to save face and defend his company’s so-called work-life balance, claimed that Anna did not have more work than others, implying that it was her fault for not keeping up with the competition! There is nothing more shameful or wretched than blaming workers for their own suffering.  
  
  Capitalists like Narayana Murthy speak of working 14-hour days, and bourgeois parties bend over backwards to serve them, enacting laws that favor extending working hours. Tamil Nadu passed a 14-hour workday, only to roll it back. The Karnataka government, ruled by Congress—whose leader Shashi Tharoor shed crocodile tears about this issue on Twitter/X—is also considering implementing a 14-hour workday. Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje has assured a "thorough investigation" into the toxic work culture at EY. Are they truly unaware of the conditions in corporate companies today? Was it not the BJP which took the decision to implement the anti-worker and anti-people Labour Codes? (Their very first decision after Modi's 2019 re-election!) Bourgeois parties work diligently in the interest of capitalists, constantly devising ways to maximize profits at the expense of workers.   
  
  As a result, the worsening conditions for workers—the overwhelming majority (almost 92%) of whom are in the unorganized sector—have eliminated whatever little protections they had on paper through labor laws, leaving them to fend for themselves. There is now an outpouring of similar stories from overworked, exhausted, stressed, and depressed corporate employees. Many are realizing they are not alone and that their reactions to work pressure are both human and normal. Some are even considering ways to unite in the workplace.   
  
  Revolutionary Workers' Party of India's (RWPI) demands:  
  
    1. A thorough investigation into working conditions at EY, strict action on management
    2. Compulsory 6 hour work day across all sectors
    3. Right to paid leave, casual leave, sick leave, privilege leave to all employees.
    4. Revocation of the 4 labour codes
    5. Right to form unions
    6. Free and quality healthcare services for all, including free mental health counselling.  
  
The time has come to make them bend to our collective unity. We must unionize and fight for our rights. Beyond reducing working hours, we need to demand social security benefits, better pay, and improved working conditions. Above all, we must mount a militant struggle against privatization, contractualization, and fight for truly better workplaces!  
  
Workers of the world, unite! Long live the revolution!