HC scraps labour tribunal’s order to provide Tk103 crore to Grameen Kalyan workers

The High Court on Thursday scrapped a labour appellate tribunal verdict against Grameen Kalyan that ordered it to pay Tk103 crore to its 106 sacked employees.

At the same time, the court declared the tribunal's verdict illegal.

A two-member High Court bench headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed passed the order disposing of a rule relating to the case.

Earlier on 10 July, the Appellate Division ordered the High Court to dispose of the rule within two months, following a full court hearing of a petition filed by Workers' Association's leader Bimal Kumar Saha.

On 3 April, the Labour Appellate Tribunal ordered Grameen Kalyan to pay the company's 5% dividend to 106 sacked employees as per the Labour Act.

Dr Muhammad Yunus, chairman of Grameen Kalyan, then challenged that decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal with the High Court.

Following Dr Yunus' petition, the High Court on 30 May ordered a status quo on the Labour Appellate Tribunal order for six months. Dr Yunus then appealed against the HC order.

According to case records, 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.

According to labour law, the company has to provide 5% of its dividend to the workers' participation fund as well as the welfare fund.

As the company refused to distribute workers' dividends among them, the aggrieved employees sent a legal notice to Grameen Kalyan. As the company did not respond, they filed the case with the labour court