SEBI employees held another protest outside their office premises on Thursday.
A person familiar with the matter said the employees are miffed about the five-page rebuttal addressed to the media on Wednesday.
The note said that claims of unprofessional work culture at SEBI were misplaced and that external elements influenced junior employees to demand higher pay despite poor performance.
About 500 employees sent an email to the finance ministry last month accusing the top leadership at SEBI of creating a toxic work culture, setting unrealistic targets, and micro-managing employees.
In recent years, employees have demanded a 55 per cent increase in house rent allowance and an update to the management information system for key result areas. In this context, a 15-minute silent protest was held.
After this, a letter focused on “work culture” was sent on August 6. A second letter was submitted with a list of 16 monetary and non-monetary demands, including automatic promotions at lower performance ratings without interviews, the regulator said on Wednesday. The cost to the company for entry-level SEBI officers is about ₹34 lakh per annum, and the new demands would have raised this by about ₹6 lakh per annum, it said.