Employees demand arrears occupying main office

Synovia Pharma, previously known as Sanofi Bangladesh, is in a troubled state as its distribution network has severely been affected due to the recent row by 300 employees, who are demanding arrears of last 32 months.
The workers occupied the company's main office, pushing top officials of the medicine manufacturing firm to do office virtually for the last two months fearing personal security, according to Moin Uddin Majumder, chief operating officer of Synovia Pharma.
The distribution channel of the company has been badly affected as a result.
The workers have been demanding wages and other financial benefits since early 2022 when the pharmaceutical company temporarily halted disbursing salaries on allegation that the employees did not rejoin their duties after the share transfer of French drug maker Sanofi Bangladesh to local business conglomerate Beximco Group in early 2021.
But the situation took a serious turn after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government. The employees, who claimed to be deprived by the new management of the drug making company following sales of Sanofi's stakes, entered into the office demanding their due payments for the first time two days after.
Moin Uddin said the 'former employees' have been illegally occupying the office since August 12, 2024.
Beximco Group purchased Sanofi's stakes in January, 2021. Since then, although about 70 per cent of Sanofi's employees joined their duties, while 300 others, mostly sales representatives, refrained from joining office, Moin Uddin said explaining the matter.
Despite their absence, the company continued paying their salaries throughout 2021, he added.
The company's board members strongly opposed the decision over continuation of their salaries and other benefits, he also said.
"So, we stopped paying from January 2022. But before that, we sent letters in 13 times instructing them to join. But they did not give any response," he claimed, stating that they filed a case in the labour court where they submitted the documents.
He said that two days after the regime shift, the employees came into the office and claimed their due payments through cordoning them off.
Following intervention of the army personnel, the protesting 'former employees' left the place, Moin Uddin said.
They stormed into the office again on August 12 and occupied the company's main office. Because of their absence, the company incurred net loss of Tk 700 million in two consecutive years - 2022 and 2023 when the sale volume dropped to half.
To bring acceleration in the distribution channel, he said, the company appointed some 168 other people and the sales started picking up. "But the latest development put our distribution in serious trouble as we are unable to attend office physically since August 12, 2024 over security reasons. We want to resume our normal business activities. We want security," Moin Uddin added.
Rejecting the allegations, Sanjib Kumar Chakrobarty, one of the employees, said the Synovia management made the false allegation against them only to avoid their due payments for the last 32 months.
After holding a recent tripartite meeting by Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, he said, the department in his findings highlighted some key issues, which have already been published in resolution form.
In the resolution, he said, it is stated that the department's law officer Masum Billah found that the management did not show any valid documents over their claim that the employees refrained from joining office.
Citing the resolution, he said it was also decided that the management will give its decision over due payment of the employees on Wednesday. "So, we will go for getting good news from the management," he added.
In January, 2021, Beximco Group acquired Paris-based Sanofi's stake (54.6 per cent). Following the acquisition, the name of the company changed to Synovia.

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