06/04/2023

Cleanaway Waste Management held a conference for close to 100 top managers, where Vik Bansal told regional heads he would “respect” them more if they resigned.

While several employees and former Cleanaway workers have said the Financial Review’s reporting of the culture at the company has been accurate, former Cleanaway executive general manager of sales and marketing Dave Aardsma said the coverage was “unfair”.
“I dont believe you took the time to accurately understand the positive change needed to turn the company around,” Mr Aardsma said.
“I was a direct report of Viks for two years. What I saw was a very driven leader who took the actions needed to turn Australias largest waste and recycling company around.”
High staff turnover
After the company confirmed he had been investigated, Mr Bansal admitted to the conduct and is now receiving “mentoring” and is subjected to “enhanced reporting and monitoring”. His sale of $10 million in shares in late August almost three-quarters of his holding is being examined by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. There is no suggestion the share sales were related to the findings of the investigation.
Mr Bansal has revived the fortunes of the $4.5 billion company since joining in 2015, triggering a 300 per cent rally in Cleanaway shares over that time.
But his management style has left many unhappy. Those who have worked with Mr Bansal argue his leadership style is the chief reason for the company’s high rate of turnover in senior management and lower-level employees, which included a recent instance where six out of eight general managers resigned within six months, and the departure of half-a-dozen employees who filled the group’s head of health and safety role over the past four years.
During the 2017 financial year, the year in which Mr Bansal launched his decade-long strategy for the company and the waste management sector, close to 100 Cleanaway executives, general managers and regional managers from across Australia came to a two-day conference at a function centre next to Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport.
While the conference involved a number of motivational presentations by the chief executive, Mr Bansal also told the group of regional managers in front of the rest Cleanaway staff that they were not meeting expectations and he would “respect” them more if they offered up their resignations.
“If youre not meeting expectations, I will take your resignation. I will respect you because you’re man enough to admit youre not good enough,” Mr Bansal said, according to employees who were present at the conference.
Share sales
At the time, Mr Bansal also used a commonly shared motivational presentation outlining the story of an eagle whose physical condition deteriorates as it reaches middle age, before shedding its beak, talons and feathers and regrowing them over a period of months, in a “rebirth” that allows it to live another 30 years. The presentation is considered scientifically inaccurate.
Through a spokesman, Mr Bansal denied making the comments about asking for regional managers to resign and contended that the eagle presentation was an allegory.
Mr Bansals alleged reluctance to allow employees to work from home triggered the whistleblower complaint in May, in which it was alleged the chief executive told employees and managers that he expected workers to come into the office. That went against guidelines issued by the Victorian government that recommended workers stay home unless it was not practicable for them to do so.
Mr Bansal late last month sold 73 per cent of his 5.5 million shares in the company for a total of $10 million.
The on-market share sales came just days after fine print in Cleanaway’s full-year financial accounts showed Mr Bansal “offered to forgo” his short-term incentive bonus “due to COVID-19-related challenges faced by the group” and that the board had “agreed to reduce” his short-term bonus by 25 per cent.
No other Cleanaway executive manager volunteered to reduce their bonus that year and no reason was provided to the market for Mr Bansal’s share sales. The company has declined to answer questions about the share sale.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Securities Exchange has held detailed discussions over the matter.