The petitioners, former Grameen Telecom assistant officer Sajibur Rahman and three former senior officers including, Abu Sufian, Gulshan Ahmed and ASM Saiful Islam, alleged in their petitions that they were not paid their dividends during the period under review.
Following admissibility hearing all four cases were accepted by the Labour Court III chairman Sultan Mahmud for trial.
So far, seven cases have been filed against Yunus and Ashraf accusing that both of them flouted the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 by refusing dividends to workers from its Tk 2158.65 crore as profits earned during the period.
Earlier on Tuesday, three former Grameen Telecom employees assistant manager Amir Hossain, former senior officer Hanjala Ibrahim and former assistant officer Mostafa Al Amin, filed separated cases with the same court.
The plaintiffs alleged that none of the 110 Grameen Telecom employees were paid their dividends of Tk Tk 86.34 crore from Tk 2158.65 crore the company earned as profits in last 10 years in gross violation of the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, amended in 2013.
The law requires Grameen Telecom to pay four per cent of its net profit as dividends to its workers, plaintiff’s pleader Jafrul Hassan Sharif told New Age.
The law requires Grameen Telecom to pay four per cent of its net profits to its workers as dividends and contribute 0.5 per cent to the Workers’ Welfare Fund run by Grameen Telecom itself and another 0.5 per cent to the Workers’ Welfare Foundation Fund run by the government, said the lawyer.
Founded by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Telecom, which holds 34.2 stakes in Grameenphone, earned dividends worth Tk 21,586,520,417 from the profits Grameenphone earned in last 10 years, said the lawyer.
Grameen Telecom managing director Ashraful Hassan told New Age that the company would face the cases in the court.
Source: New Age
