Why am I writing this petition - My deceased husband ‘Abhimanyu Patel’ suffered mental harassment in Pine Labs, Noida (a fintech solution provider company) . He was asked to leave the company twice (In June 2020 as well as on April 19th, 2021) , for no reason but mere internal politics , even after receiving an ‘Exceed Expectation’ rating in the annual appraisal cycle for FY 2019-20 which clearly states that he was a good performer. On April 19th he was asked to resign and his last working day was decided to be April 20th. When he asked about the notice period they said we will discuss and decide internally if we want to compensate your notice period ( 2 months notice or equivalent salary Abhimanyu must have got rightfully as per the offer letter)

Company’s CTO Sanjeev Kumar ganged up with others (abuse of power) and did not let Abhimanyu to work on the ongoing ‘AllTap’ project (Abhimanyu worked on this project from the beginning and laid a very strong foundation for the same). Sanjeev kumar abused my husband during meetings and was trying to break his confidence (which fortunately didn’t happen) and due to all this my husband was feeling harassed. No one in the company including his manager, HRs and CEO (Amrish Rau) were able to question Sanjeev Kumar’s conduct even after so many complaints from Abhimanyu and many others in Pine Labs (yes there are other sufferers too who fear to disclose their identities).

Just because Abhimanyu was about to loose his job (which was very much evident from the attitude of the senior management) we ran to Noida from Bhopal (our home town) to vacate our rented apartment and during this time he contracted COVID. As he was mentally harassed and traumatised by the incidents at Pine Labs his recovery was becoming difficult and he passed away on May 23rd.

Ask to leave and abuse of power has become a common practice in private sector companies and there has to be some laws in place against the same. My ask is very clear through this petition -

1. Strict laws against Mental Harassment at workplace. Brilliant minds should not be treated the way Pine Labs treated Abhimanyu.

2. A platform / helpline to report such incidents to authorities (outside company) so that they know which company is not protecting the rights of an employee and is actually harassing them. HR department of the companies are ultimately getting paid from them hence doesn’t hold an authority to question company’s or senior management’s code of conduct when such incidents are reported by employees.

3. Strict laws against ‘Ask to leave’ culture (without prior warnings or notice) as this is becoming a new normal.

I request Ravi Shankar Prasad ji (current Union Minister) to seriously think about the mental health of country’s youth and impose some laws on private sector companies hence keeping a check on their wilfulness to destroy someone’s career.

Abhimanyu was not the only one to suffer this kind of harassment there are many others in Pine Labs as well as other private companies. For a better future and in order to prevent killing of brilliant minds this has to stop.