Resign Madhabi Puri Buch: Sebi employees protest at Mumbai headquarters

As many as 200 employees of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) carried out protest on Thursday (September 5) in Mumbai after the market regulator, in a recent media release, termed their letter dated August 6 on “toxic work culture” addressed to the Finance Ministry “misguided by external elements”.

The protest which was held outside the Sebi’s headquarters in Mumbai lasted for about a couple of hours, following which they dispersed and returned to work.

Why were Sebi employees protesting in Mumbai?

An internal message sent to Sebi employees mentioned that the “purpose of the protest was to show dissent and unity against the arm-twisting exercise done by the top management in the garb of a press release."  

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Demands of protesters

The message further read that the “immediate demand is withdrawal of press release and resigning of Sebi chairperson (Madhabi Puri Buch) for spreading lies against Sebi’s employees."

What did Sebi press release say?

On Wednesday (September 4), the claims by the employees of “toxic work culture” at Sebi in a letter to the Finance Ministry is “misguided” and perhaps triggered by “external elements."

”… it is our belief that Sebi’s junior officers, who were in large numbers, originally aggrieved in respect of HRA allowances, 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,” Sebi said in the release.

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The capital market watchdog further claimed that the junior staffer were misguided to believe that “they are being ‘underpaid’, even at a CTC (cost to company) of Rs 34 lakh per annum and that it would be in their interest to use issues of work culture to bargain for monetary benefits” and that “they should get automatic promotions."

Sebi even stated in the release that some of the initiatives taken during the last two-three years as part of its attempts to improve the work culture.

“Over the last 2-3 years, Sebi employees have embraced these new initiatives. Ageing of pending matters across every single department has shown significant improvement and the market has felt the responsiveness and timeliness of Sebi’s actions as well,” Sebi said.

The statement further said that the claims of unprofessional work culture in letter to the Finance Ministry were misplaced and seemed to have stem from instances such as “under-pitching of processing capability of officers by as low as 1/4th 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."  

Sebi employees complain letter to Finance Ministry

Sebi officials complained about the toxic work culture, micromanaging and use of harsh language at Sebi under the leadership of Buch.

“Shouting, scolding and public humiliation have become a norm in meetings,” Sebi officials highlighted in the letter.

Also Read: Did market regulator Sebi have a 'toxic' work culture? Report says...

They also accused Sebi leadership of using harsh language, setting unrealistic targets and micromanaging.  

Sebi has a strength of around 1,000 officers of Grade A and above. The five-page letter, titled – ‘Grievances of Sebi Officers - A Call for Respect’ – sent to the Finance Ministry, was signed by about 500 of them.

With inputs from agencies.