CCC in the doldrums over staff’s lawsuits

The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) is stuck in a mire of lawsuits filed by its own employees, reports bdnews24.com.
Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam filed two cases, while a lawsuit by three assistant engineers has stalled all appointments and promotions at the CCC for the past three years.
A case has been filed by CCC Deputy Secretary Mahmud Katebi, while Revenue Officer Shamsul Alam sued the city corporation, seeking permanent employment.
A total of 48 employees of the engineering department filed seven cases, including a petition with the High Court (HC), and the revenue section's 42 employees filed five cases -- most of the verdicts of which are in favour of the plaintiffs. The CCC has appealed against the decisions.
Meanwhile, mayor AJM Nasir Uddin has initiated move to settle the cases. On Saturday, he met the plaintiffs to find a way out.
On being assured of the matter of appointments and promotions being 'considered', the plaintiffs initially agreed to withdraw the cases. The mayor, however, instructed city corporation officials to pursue some of the lawsuits.
In 2009, Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam was suspended by the then Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury for having allegedly failed to conduct lawsuits.
Alam moved to the High Court and secured a stay order against his suspension, but could not join work as long as Chowdhury was in the mayor's office. After the 2010 city polls, when Manjur Alam was elected mayor, he joined the CCC and went retired on 2012.
Following his retirement, Alam filed two cases under the Judicial Service Act, seeking extra three years of service and salary increment, but a trial court rejected the plea.
He then moved to the District Judge's Court, which ruled in his favour. Alam, then, joined the CCC again.
The CCC, however, is uncertain about the stance it should adopt in these cases.
"I will ask the higher-ups about what would be the CCC's position," CCC Secretary Rashid Ahmed told the news agency.
Meanwhile, Alam said: "My cases have been resolved; that's why it was not discussed in Saturday's meeting."
After the HC's stay order in 2012 following a petition filed by three assistant engineers appointed on a temporary contracts, all appointments and promotions at the CCC have been stalled.
One of the plaintiffs, Shahinul Islam Chowdhury, said he, along with others, had filed the case in 2007 after the CCC refused to appoint them in posts going vacant.
"In February, 2012, we filed another case when the CCC advertised for recruitment for 142 vacant posts, and the HC  issued the stay order," he said.
After Saturday's meeting, Chowdhury, however, said: "I do not want to continue with lawsuits, which hampers the CCC's operations."
Meanwhile, 11 other deputy assistant engineers had moved to the court in 2011, seeking promotions as assistant engineers. In April in 2014, the court ruled in their favour, but three of them are yet to be promoted.
The stalemate has caused the CCC to make the supervisor engineer the acting chief engineer, as a new candidate could not be appointed after Chief Engineer Mohammad Mokhta Alam retired on May 30, 2014.
Employees of the CCC's revenue wing filed five cases during previous mayor M Manjur Alam's tenure over promotion and permanent appointments.
Revenue Officer Shamsul Alam is the plaintiff of one of the cases.
"I am getting paid as per the salary scale of a deputy revenue collector, though my designation is of a revenue officer.
"I have been promoted but I am not a permanent employee," said Alam, who is due to retire after six months.
The CCC's legal wing, however, said since the plaintiffs have agreed to settle the cases, it's now possible to get out of the legal tangle.
"The matters of appointing in vacant positions and making some employees permanent can be settled with discussions. The mayor has instructed us to wrap up these issues as soon as possible," said Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam.