Sebi argued that the letter sent to the ministry on August 6 was not sent by employee unions but was an anonymous email sent by outside elements to junior officers who believed they were being underpaid and should get automatic promotions. The statement came in response to an ET report which quoted a complaint saying that “yelling, scolding and public humiliation have become common” at Sebi.
The complaint was sent to the government by about 500 officers. In a rare five-page statement, Sebi said, “It is unfortunate that certain elements have attempted to undermine the critical capabilities of Sebi employees by instigating them to believe that, as 'employees of a regulator', they should not be required to maintain such high standards of performance and accountability.”
However, Sebi's clarification is silent on “toxicity” complaints, which officials said was the core of their complaint.
With regard to the claims of officers about unprofessional work culture mentioned in the letter to the finance ministry, Sebi said such claims are incorrect. These could be due to instances such as 'reporting the processing capacity of officers to be less than (fourth) of their actual capacity, incorrect reporting of the status of achievement of KRAs, shuffling files between departments for long periods of time to avoid decision making, 'adjusting' the appraisal marks of underperforming officers to 'somehow' make them eligible for promotion, etc,' Sebi clarified. “In such cases, the officers concerned have been held accountable, given concrete feedback, and corrective actions have been taken,” it said.
The clarification titled 'Are employees' HRA issues being mishandled by external elements to target the credibility of SEBI and its leadership?' came after a hectic day of activity at SEBI headquarters. The protest by officers on September 5 has now been called off.
The statement said the employees are demanding a 55% hike in HRA over the allowances fixed last year. It also said that SEBI officers who are “already getting handsome salaries” and whose remuneration is “much better than the corporate sector” will see their annual CTC increase by Rs 6 lakh or about 17.6% if the additional demands are met.
SEBI said that most of its employees agree with the new systems that are being implemented. These systems include finalisation of KRAs (key results/responsibility areas) at the beginning of the year, monthly MIS (management information system) review, annual performance review of each team by full-time members and chairman, promotion policy, etc.
Adoption of technology to improve productivity in the organisation is also one of the new initiatives within Sebi, which has been embraced by the employees, the regulator said.