Ernst & Young fires dozens of US staff for cheating on professional training courses: ‘Just bizarre’

Ernst & Young, a multinational accounting firm based in Britain, fired a few of its US staff members last week for what it described as “cheating.”

Several employees completed multiple online courses during the “EY Ignite Learning Week” in May, according to an internal probe.

The corporation said that the job cuts were a disciplinary action taken in response to infractions of its US learning policy and global code of conduct.

Highlighting its core values of integrity and ethics, the EY stated: “Appropriate disciplinary action was recently taken in a small number of cases where individuals were found to be in violation of our global code of conduct and US learning policy.”

Layoffs, however, are seen by the staff as an excessive response. Some of the sacked workers told the Financial Times that they were mostly motivated by curiosity and had no notion they were breaking any laws by enrolling in multiple seminars.

Staff members were expected to finish this learning task with integrity, by attending all content and class interactions, according to a warning mentioned at the bottom of an email about a two-day program of sessions in August that focused on markets and generative artificial intelligence.

The email stated, “You should not take any other learning while completing this activity.”

Also Read: McKinsey layoffs: Company to cut 360 jobs affecting these roles as demand slows

Employees fume over EY layoffs, its disproportionately severe response

Some of the employees are required to log 45 hours per week or work with three monitors and give their additional hours for internal work.

“I know a partner who will do two [client] calls and switch their camera on and off depending on who he is talking to,” one employee told FT. “If this is unethical, then that is unethical, too.”

Other fired employees who lost their jobs blasted EY, stating that the firm “breeds a culture of multitasking”. “If you are forced to bill 45 hours a week and do many more hours of internal work, how can it not?”

As per current records, EY has employed 393,000 people worldwide.

Reacting to EY's statement, some employees called it a “disproportionately severe response”. According to several posts on the private employee messaging service Fishbowl, they also questioned whether EY itself was accountable for utilizing a system that permitted staff to open several Zoom meetings and that tallied overlapping CPE credits.

“Just bizarre”, reacted one commenter on EY's statement. “Perhaps reduce their rating, deduct bonus, or even delay promo, but simply terminating them effective immediately is just cruel ... If this was so important, then implement better systems.”