Staff Reporter :
With the connivance of the Grameen Telecom Authority and some leaders of the Grameen Telecom Employees Union, Tk 26 crore of ordinary employees have been looted. In this incident, a person named Mainul Islam has beenarrested by the detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police Chief Haroon Or Rashid disclosed it in a press conference at DMP Media Center on Sunday (August 28). He said that Mainul was arrested from Magbari area of Comilla’s Sadar police station on Wednesday.
During the arrest, two mobile phones, one laptop and a cheque of Tk 1.7 million were seized from him.
Harun Or Rashid said that on July 5, Grameen Telecom Employees’ Union
President Kamruzzaman and Secretary Feroz Mahmud Hasan were arrested in the case of embezzlement of employees’ money.
They have given a statement under Section 164 in the court. On July 4, Grameen Telecom employees union Finance Secretary Mohammad Aktaruzzaman filed a complaint with the Mirpur Model Police Station that the contractual employment of workers is being continuously renewed in various time without permanentisation.
He said that according to the Labour Act, five percent of the annual dividend is supposed to be given to Works Profit Participation Fund, Sramik Kalyan Fund and Sramik Kalyan Foundation in the ratio of 80:10:10, but the authorities did not give the dividend raising various excuses including ’employees are not permanent’ and ‘company is unprofitable’.
Even 99 workers were illegally fired from the company last year when the employees made demands on these issues.
Due to these reasons, the workers of the company filed 190 cases in the labor court. But the cases were dropped with the connivance of some leaders of the company and labor unions by giving false assurances to the workers.
Then on April 27, an agreement was signed between Grameen Telecom and Grameen Telecom Sramik-Karmachari Union.
According to the agreement, a settlement account was opened with Dhaka Bank Gulshan branch on May 10. From the year 2010 to the current year 2022, 5 percent of the company’s total dividend and 4 percent of the company’s interest were deposited in this settlement account from the company.
DB Chief said that all dues of the workers should be managed from this account. According to the agreement, no amount can be deducted from the settlement account other than dues to workers and 5 percent advance tax. But with the connivance of the company’s management authorities, the president, vice-president and general secretary of the employee union, along with a few others, removed taka 26 crore 22 lakh from the account and embezzled it.
