A total of 18 cases have been filed with the Third Labour Court in Dhaka against Grameen Telecom (GT) over a claim of getting 5.0 per cent of the company's net profit as per the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006.
The former workers of the company, owned by Nobel Laureate Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, filed the cases on August 27, demanding proportionate benefits from the workers' profit participation fund, said their lawyers Mashiur Malek and Md Helal Uddin.
Sheikh Merina Sultana, judge of the court, already issued two notices upon the GT authorities to explain their position over the former employees' claims.
The authorities were asked to comply with one notice issued for nine cases within October 16, and another notice issued for nine other cases within October 18, according to the lawyers.
Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, a counsel of Prof Yunus, said he heard about the cases from the media and did not know the update.
Md Helal Uddin said he earlier sent a legal notice to the GT authorities, demanding to pay proportionate benefits from the workers' profit participation fund within three days to 18 former employees as per the Labour Law. However, the authorities did not pay the employees' dues.
According to the case statements, the 18 ex-employees demanded Tk 214.11 million as their dues from GT for the years 2006-2020.
Earlier, 176 former officials withdrew all 110 cases, filed against the organisation and its founder Prof Yunus in May 2022. The cases were withdrawn following a settlement over their claim for the dividend payment.
The firm paid Tk 4.37 billion to its 176 former employees as their dues through an out-of-court settlement.
On June 6 this year, the same court framed charge against GT Chairman Dr Yunus, its Managing Director Ashraful Hassan, and directors Nurjahan Begum and Md Shahjahan in a case, filed for allegedly violating the labour law, and on August 22 started testimony.
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Inspector Arifuzzaman filed the case on 9 September 2021.
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