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A total of 18 fresh cases have been filed with the 3rd Labour Court in Dhaka against Grameen Telecom, an organisation founded by Nobel Laureate Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, over a claim of 5 per cent net profit of the company under the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006.
Former 18 workers of the company filed the cases on August 27 demanding proportionate benefits from the workers’ profit participation fund, said their lawyers Mashiur Malek and Md Helal Uddin.
Judge of the Third Labour Court in Dhaka Sheikh Merina Sultana already issued two notices to the authorities of Grameen Telecom to explain their position over the claims of the former employees, said the lawyers.
The Grameen Telecom authorities have been asked to comply with one notice issued for nine cases within October 16, and another notice issued for other nine cases within 18 October, according to the lawyers.
Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, a counsel of Prof Yunus, said he heard from the media and doesn’t know the update of the cases.
Md Helal Uddin said he earlier sent a legal notice to the authorities of Grameen Telecom demanding to pay proportionate benefits to 18 former employees from the workers’ profit participation fund as per the Labour Law within three days. However, the authorities didn’t pay the dues of the employees.
According to the case statements, the 18 ex-employees demanded Tk 214.11 million as their dues from Grameen Telecom for the year from 2006 to 2020.
Earlier, 176 Grameen Telecom’s former officials withdrew all 110 cases filed against the organisation and its founder Prof Yunus in May 2022. The cases were withdrawn after a settlement over the claim of the employees for the payment of the dividends.
The organisation paid Tk 4.37 billion to its 176 former employees in dues through an out-of-court settlement.
The same Labour Court on August 22 this year started testimony in the case filed against Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus, also chairman of Grameen Telecom, and three others for allegedly violating the labour law.
On June 6 this year, the same court framed charge against the accused in the case filed by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) for allegedly violating the labour law.
The other accused in the case are- Grameen Telecom Managing Director Ashraful Hassan, Directors Nurjahan Begum and Md Shahjahan.
Inspector of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, Arifuzzaman, filed the case with Dhaka 3rd Labour Court on 9 September in 2021 against four people, including Prof Yunus.