The management of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has banned staff from engaging in any form of political activity as the nation prepares vigorously for the 2024 general election.
This directive was contained in a circular shared with staff.
In justifying the prohibition, management said the action was in line with Section 3 of the BOST code of conduct and ethics.
The circular firstly explained that “political activity means doing something in active support of or opposition to a political party, a candidate for partisan political office (President, Member of Parliament or any Representative Office) or a partisan political group”.
“The (BOST) employee is expected to desist from active involvement in any party politics, avoid making political donations in the name of BOST, never use his or her position in BOST to try to influence any other person (inside or outside of BOST) to make political contributions or provide support to any political parties or politicians,” the BOST circular stated.
“Additionally, the BOST announcement further indicated that members of staff are “not to make any contributions or incur expenses using an account for any political campaign, political party, political candidate or any of their affiliated organisations and not to use their position to allow others to use resources such as work time, telephones, communications, services or meeting rooms to support any political campaign, political party, political candidate or any of their affiliated organisations”.
BOST further directed that the involvement of any of its staff in party politics “must be done outside working hours and not on the company’s premises.
“While BOST acknowledges the political interests of its employees, these interests should not affect the smooth operations of the workplace. There are a variety of situations that could give rise to the expression of employee political interest.
“These include but are not limited to: Discriminating against an employee due to clashing political views and thus preventing them the opportunity to equal rights, creating an unsafe work environment for people with complementary political views resulting in bullying, physical and/or emotional abuse, preventing equal opportunity, ranging from position promotion or pay-rise to people due to clashing political beliefs,” the BOST directive to its staff further stated.