Appellate Division upholds labour tribunal’s order to provide 5% dividend to Grameen Kalyan workers

The Appellate Division upheld a labour appellate tribunal order against Grameen Kalyan that allowed paying a 5% dividend of the company to its 106 sacked employees.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui passed the order on Monday (10 July).

The Appellate Division also ordered the High Court (HC) to dispose of the rule relating to the case within two months, following a full court hearing of a petition filed by Workers' Association's leader Bimal Kumar Saha.

Earlier on 30 May, the High Court (HC) asked the government to maintain status quo for six months on the Labour Appellate Tribunal's decision that the telecom employees were entitled to get benefit of the company profit since 2006.

Following a petition by Grameen Kalyan founder Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, the court also issued a rule to know why the labour appellate tribunal's verdict would not be declared illegal.

According to court sources, the sacked 106 employees worked at Grameen Kalyan from 2006 to 2013. Later, they were sacked on different grounds. However, the company did not provide 5% of the company's dividend for the fiscal years between 2006 and 2013 to the workers in violation of the labour law, which requires the company to pay dividend to the workers' participation fund as well as the welfare fund.

Later, the aggrieved employees sent a legal notice to Grameen Kalyan. As the company did not respond, they filed a case with the labour court.