MTUC slams Socso over ‘5 marks for 50 shares’ staff appraisal

 

MTUC wants Socso to withdraw the directive calling it a ridiculous way of assessing work performance.

PETALING JAYA: Linking social media “shares” and “likes” on the bosses’ accounts to staff appraisal is “ridiculous” and will create a “Yes Boss” culture among workers in an organisation, says the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).

Congress secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor said that such an evaluation criterion sent a wrong signal to its workers, adding that appraisals should be done based on the employees’ work scope and not over any social media activity.

“Is the Socso chief executive officer desperate to gain popularity by forcing the staff to work in a ‘yes boss’ office environment? This is not acceptable and we are shocked that this is happening in the first place.

“We urge the management to rescind the directive immediately. The Socso board too must act immediately,” Kamarul said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Socso informed its staff via a memo that the performance evaluation now took into account the number of times they had “shared” posts from its CEO’s official Facebook page.

Kamarul added that this directive was outside the staff’s work scope and had violated proper corporate governance and that MTUC would not hesitate to lodge complaints with the relevant authorities.

A three-page memo to Socso staff signed by CEO Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed stated that the sharing of Facebook posts uploaded by the CEO’s page was a category under Socso’s 2021 staff performance planning and evaluation system.

It also said this was limited to Facebook only, with marks to be given periodically to staff based on the number of shares they make in a year.

Five marks would be given to staff who shared Azman’s posts more than 50 times in a year. Meanwhile, those who only shared one to five posts in a year would receive just one mark.

Sosco had since clarified that the workers’ evaluation on social media sharing was meant to disseminate as quickly as possible information on the various incentives and benefits by the agency.

But it did not clarify the marks to be given out for appraisal based on the shares.

The organisation said it was given the responsibility by the government to implement several important assistance incentives to the public, especially to employers and employees, to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Therefore, it said this social media move would ensure information reached the people fast.

Besides Sosco, civil servants under the communications and multimedia ministry were also allegedly told to “like” and “follow” social media pages of the minister, deputy minister and senior management members.

Minister Saifuddin Abdullah later denied the claim. - FMT