“Shouting, scolding and public humiliation have become a norm in meetings,” said the August 6 letter, which ET has reviewed. The communication has come to light at a time when Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch is facing accusations of conflict of interest over the regulator’s Adani inquiry and the Opposition has raised questions over compensation paid to her by former employer ICICI Bank. Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra accused her of corruption on Tuesday. Buch has denied any wrongdoing as has ICICI Bank. Sebi said matters with employees have been resolved. “The issues referred in your mail have already been addressed by Sebi,” the regulator said in an email.
‘Impact on Mental Health’
“Engagement with employees for resolution of their issues is a continuous process,” it said. ET had sent the queries to Sebi on September 1.
The regulator has a strength of around 1,000 officers of Grade A and above (assistant manager and above) and half of them, about 500, have signed the letter. The finance ministry didn’t respond to ET’s queries.
The letter entitled ‘Grievances of Sebi Officers-A Call for Respect’ says the leadership steered by Buch uses “harsh and unprofessional language” toward team members, monitors their “minute-by-minute movement” and has imposed “unrealistic work targets with changing goalposts”.
This is perhaps the first time in Sebi’s history that its officers have raised concerns about unfriendly employee practices. This has impacted mental health and thrown work-life balance out of gear, they said in the letter.
The officials said they wrote to the finance ministry after their complaints to the management weren’t heard.
In the name of increasing efficiency, the management has overhauled systems and put in place regressive policies, according to the five-page letter.
The “core of their grievance” is the leadership “calling names” and “shouting” at them. “Unprofessional language is casually used by people at the highest level,” said the officers, adding that the situation has become such that there is “no defence from the senior management”.
They said several people, including those in higher grades, “have chosen not to express their concerns vocally for fear of vindictive nature of people at the highest level”.
While the regulator is working to improve conditions for external stakeholders, there is “growing mistrust among its employees”, read the letter. “Fear has become the primary driving force in Sebi over the last 2-3 years.”
The letter says the atmosphere has become oppressive.
“Time and time again it has been spoken that Sebi is adopting best-in-class technology to improve efficiency of work done,” according to the letter. “However, the senior management seems to conveniently forget to also adopt best-in-class man management, leadership, and motivation methods towards its employees. This method of leadership wherein employees are browbeaten into submission with shouting, using harsh and unprofessional language has to stop.”
The regulator said changes have been made.
“In respect of the work environment, format of review meetings has been changed. Hence, issues (with regard to) meetings stand addressed,” the regulator said, adding that the two associations representing Sebi employees have acknowledged these changes via emails dated September 3.
The Sebi officers’ letter said that the management has installed turnstile gates to “monitor the intra-day attendance of employees” to have “complete control of their every movement” and have demanded these be taken down, adding that they pose challenges for employees with visual impairments. To this, the Sebi spokesperson said the gates were installed recently. “Based on employee feedback, it was decided to review the requirement after six months in consultation with the employees,” Sebi said.
The Sebi officers said the management has increased key result area (KRA) targets by 20-50% for this year and wants employees to achieve them by December. This is unrealistic and has led to stress and anxiety, they said.
“Employees are not robots with a knob that one can turn and increase the output,” according to the letter. The in-house mental health counsellor who used to have “very few” visitors is now “overburdened with employees facing mental health issues”, the letter said.
The Sebi spokesperson said KRAs were drawn up after consultations and fully reviewed with all departments after the issue was raised by employees. All KRAs have been reaffirmed by three-four levels of management in each department as being reasonable. Some minor adjustments in a few departments have been made, Sebi said.