Ernst & Young fires dozens of employees for taking multiple online trainings at once

Ernst & Young's harsh response has triggered an internal outcry.

Ernst & Young has dismissed dozens of employees in the US for allegedly “cheating” during mandatory professional training sessions. The firings, which took place last week, stem from an investigation into "EY Ignite Learning Week" in May, where some employees were found to have attended multiple online training sessions simultaneously.

The dismissals have drawn sharp criticism from some of the fired employees, who maintain they did not knowingly violate any rules. Many argued that the firm's promotional emails encouraged them to attend as many sessions as their schedules permitted.

"We all work with three monitors. I was hoping to hear new ideas that I could bring to the table to separate myself from others,” one dismissed consultant told The Financial Times. Another ex-employee expressed disbelief over the decision, stating, "EY breeds a culture of multitasking. If you’re forced to bill 45 hours a week and do many more hours of internal work, how can it not?"

The trainings in question counted toward the 40 continuing professional education (CPE) credits that EY mandates employees to complete annually. The firm’s stance, however, was clear—participating in more than one session at a time was considered an ethical breach.

In a statement, EY said, “Our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do. 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.”

This incident comes in the wake of a broader crackdown by the "Big Four" accounting firms on professional training misconduct. EY has been particularly sensitive to such issues after paying a record $100 million fine to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2022.

The fine stemmed from a cheating scandal in which hundreds of EY employees shared answers to professional certification exams, including ethics tests, while senior leadership concealed the violations from regulators.

The firm's harsh response has triggered an internal outcry, with many employees arguing that the punishment did not fit the crime.

Others pointed fingers at EY itself, questioning the integrity of a system that allowed employees to open multiple Zoom sessions and log overlapping credits without any warning or restrictions.

The controversy has prompted EY to alter how it promotes its internal training events. Following the investigation into the May learning week, the company issued a stern warning in August, notifying employees that they were expected to "complete this learning activity with integrity" and refrain from attending multiple sessions simultaneously.