Around 200 securities marketing staff rallied at the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday to protest proposed changes to salary rules.

On Monday, the SET announced that effective Jan 1, a quarter of a marketing officer's salary would be locked up for a six-month period.

Under current market regulations, brokers pay 27.5 percent of their commission revenue to marketing staff. Half of the income is paid at the end of each month, with the remainder paid within two weeks.

The new rules, established by the SET and the Association of Securities Companies, would maintain the 27.5 percent payment ratio, but would pay half at the end of the month, another 25 percent within the first two weeks of the following month, and the rest within six months.

Protesters presented a petition signed by 1,000 brokerage staff urging regulators not to enforce the rule until a formal review could be made.

The letter, to be forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission, argued that the SET and local brokers had failed to consider the impact the rule change would have on employees in the industry.

Broker Natnakorn Luanrangsri said it was unclear why the SET had imposed the new rule, which was announced on Christmas day and would become effective after just one week.

"We want to ask the SET why the current system, which has been in place for more than five years, needs to be changed," he said.

Marketing staff accused the SET and brokers of maintaining a double standard in claiming to be pro-liberalisation while colluding to restrain free competition in the labour market.

"The SEC recently announced that the securities sector would be liberalised in five years, while the current 0.25 percent fixed-rate commission would remain unchanged for the next three years," he said.

"The industry has at least three years to prepare for the impact of liberalisation. So why is the SET imposing this new rule starting in January? This is very unfair."

Marketing staff currently have two options for compensation -- receive a fixed salary of 15,000 baht per month or a commission of 27.5 percent based on commission revenue on transactions processed on behalf of clients.

Mr Natnakorn said the rule would affect payment for many employees, as one-quarter of their income would be locked up for a six-month period.

"The SET is not being fair with us. This money comes from our work. If the SET refuses to reconsider, we will continue to protest and fight the matter in court."

Mr Natnakorn noted that employees were not even assured of receiving their funds after six months, as the SET rule stated that this depended on the performance and behaviour of staff.

"Basically, the SET is opening a loophole for brokers to refuse to pay their marketing staff. If you don't follow their so-called conditions, then the broker can simply choose not to pay," he said.

The SET, in addition to imposing limits on compensation for marketing staff, also restrains job mobility within the industry. Marketing staff who switch jobs without approval from their original employer face temporary bans on their trading privileges, a rule imposed to restrain headhunting within the sector.

Employees have long argued that the restraints violated the constitution, and that the SET was outside its rights to impose such rules.

In August, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of four securities traders challenging the SET's authority to curtail trading privileges after switching jobs. While the court did not address the question of the SET's authority to limit job mobility, the SET was ordered to pay fines to the plaintiffs for failing to consider the case in a prompt manner.

Suthichai Chitvanich, a SET executive vice-president, said that market executives would consider the complaints voiced by the protesters.