SSO labour official floats e-poll model

Labour representatives yesterday remained adamant in their call for the election of a new board of the Social Security Office (SSO), suggesting that using electronic voting could help get around the cost issue.

Manas Kosol, leader of the Employee Social Security Network, said the election of the new SSO board should proceed because it is a key element of social security reforms outlined in the Social Security Act.

A petition would be submitted to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha urging him to support the election of the new board, Mr Manas said, adding his group would also propose electronic voting as an inexpensive alternative.

The government decided to delay the process out of concerns the costs could reach as high as three billion baht while the board would serve only two years. At that cost, the election bill would rival that of a general election.

The issue of electing the new SSO board emerged following calls from some groups of Social Security Fund (SSF) members at the end of the previous panel’s term in November last year.

According to a 2015 amendment to the Social Security Act, the SSO board is to be chaired by the labour permanent secretary and comprises representatives from the government, employers and employees.

Seven of the board members should be elected by 14 million employee members of the SSF nationwide. The law leaves it to the labour minister to decide on the electoral process and regulations.

Mr Manas also proposed an election model in which the SSF subscribers will elect 125 representatives who will then vote among themselves to pick seven people to sit on the SSO board, with SSO offices serving as polling venues.

He said the current SSO board has been appointed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and while they are qualified for the posts, they may not act in the best interests of the social security subscribers.

“An elected board would reflect what the subscribers want and they are expected to make decisions that would benefit the social security scheme members,” he said. He also insisted that the election of the SSO board was not a political matter and several labour-related elections had taken place in the wake of the NCPO’s ban on political activities.