ASIC rejects report citing bullying and harassment
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has rejected a report published in Money Management based on a union submission which, in part, claimed the regulator had suffered from budget cuts, poor structuring and an internal culture of bullying and harassment leading to poor performance.
Reacting to the report, ASIC issued a formal statement to Money Management arguing that the content of the CPSU submission had not been accurately reflected.
"The CPSU submission does not say ASIC has poor performance. In fact, the submission says we have good performance," the statement said, citing elements which said "ASIC is an effective regulator that performs well in a complex environment. ASIC employees are highly skilled and take pride in their work. However there are a number of resourcing issues that prevent the agency from performing at an optimum level".
The statement pointed out that, on the topic of bullying, the union submission had acknowledged that ASIC's new chairman (Greg Medcraft ) had also responded to the union's lobbying "and taken steps to address an environment of bullying and harassment that had developed under the previous chairman".
It noted the submission's reference to the staff having "reported improvements in this area with ASIC management having agreed to run compulsory bullying and harassment training for all staff and Commissioners".
"As the CPSU submission points out, ASIC has an active program to minimise the risk of bullying or harassment," ASIC deputy chairman, Peter Kell said. "The number of incidents of bullying or harassment at ASIC is below the Australian Public Service (APS) average and continues to decrease."
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