Amid reports of a toxic work environment, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) says the allegations of unprofessional work culture in its offices are 'misplaced' and these claims are not endorsed by any of its employee associations. Moneylife is one of the publications that received the 6 August 2024 letter, sent anonymously from a Proton mail ID. At no time did the letter say that it had garnered 500 signatures. Meanwhile, about 200 employees held a protest on Thursday at SEBI's headquarters at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.
In a statement, the market regulator says, "It is our belief that SEBI's junior officers, who were in large numbers, originally aggrieved in respect of house rent allowance (HRA), have been misguided, perhaps by external elements to believe that as 'employees of a regulator', they should not be held to high standards of performance and accountability even though, they have in fact demonstrated that they are fully capable of delivering to high standards to the market ecosystem."
"To believe that they are being 'underpaid', even at a cost to company (CTC) of Rs34 lakh per annum and that it would be in their interest to use issues of work culture to bargain for monetary benefits and to believe that they should get automatic promotions," SEBI says.
Last month, SEBI officials in grades A to C held a 15-minute silent protest at the regulator's head office in Mumbai on many issues, including the newly launched digital management information system (MIS) for key result areas (KRAs).
Key issues faced by SEBI employees, according to our sources, include issues with house rent allowance-HRAs, loans to employees (which they want to be on par with Reserve Bank of India-RBI), attendance (they want it less strict), creche facilities, allowances, MIS issues, study leave, computer allowance, pensions, work from home option, health check-up and bonding beyond work.
However, SEBI says, "...a group of employees consciously designed a strategy to change the narrative to frame the issue as relating to the work environment, with an objective to have bargaining power to seek more benefits. Accordingly, a letter focused on 'work culture' was crafted and sent to the human resources department (HRD) on 6 August 2024. Thereafter, after seven days, apparently, as part of the strategy, a second letter was submitted with a long list of 16 demands for numerous monetary and non-monetary benefits, including an increase in HRA. Further, automatic promotions at lower performance ratings without interviews have also been 'demanded'."
According to SEBI, while the letter of 6 August 2024 laid great stress on unreasonable targets, when, in response to this feedback, the KRAs were reviewed, the majority of the KRAs were reaffirmed 'as is' by three to four levels of management, and only a few departments saw minor changes to their KRAs.
"SEBI officers are already well paid, and for entry-level officers at grade A, the cost to the company is approximately Rs34 lakh per annum, which compares extremely favourably even with the corporate sector. The new demands placed by them would amount to an additional CTC of almost Rs6 lakh per annum," it added.
Commenting on its work culture, the market regulator says it is committed to ensuring that it is responsive to the market ecosystem and all its participants, in terms of speed of approval and facilitating ease of doing business as well as in carrying out timely investigation and enforcement against wrongdoing in the market. "SEBI employees have been delivering this over many decades and with increasing complexity and scale of the market, they have adopted technology and new processes to continue to deliver to the markets."
It says, "The claims of unprofessional work culture in the letter dated 6 August 2024 are misplaced and seem to stem from instances such as under-pitching of the processing capability of officers by as low as one-fourth of actual capacity, misreporting of status of achievement of KRAs, shuttling of files between departments over a long period to avoid taking decisions and 'adjusting' appraisal marks of poorly performing officers to 'somehow' make them eligible for promotion."
"In such instances, the officers concerned have been held accountable, given firm feedback, and corrective actions taken. The introduction of the online MIS system was, among other initiatives, aimed at ensuring that deserving employees receive due recognition based on objective performance assessments," the market regulator says.
Further, SEBI says it apprehends that the junior officers have been receiving messages from external elements outside their group, effectively instigating them to …go to the media, go to the ministry, go to board…, perhaps to serve their own purpose. "In fact, the letter of 6 August 2024 was not sent by the SEBI employee associations to the government (and a section of the media). It was an anonymous email that was sent, and officers and associations (SEBI Employees Associations (SEA), SEBI Association of Legal Officers (SEALS)) have themselves condemned it and communicated the same to HRD through emails."
Meanwhile, according to reports, about 200 employees of SEBI held a protest at the market regulator's headquarters in Mumbai on 5 September 2024. These employees are agitating against the statement released by SEBI calling their earlier letter on unprofessional work culture to the Union ministry of finance (MoF) 'misguided by external elements'.
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