GP staff protest union registration delay
More than 100 members of the Grameenphone Employees Union (GPEU) formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday demanding the labour department immediately register the body and issue a certificate as a formal recognition.
The union leaders also held a news conference at the press club where they said it was incomprehensible to them why the GPEU had not been registered although they applied for it more than five and a half years ago.
The union was formed as per laws and the application for the registration was submitted on July 23 in 2012, they said.
The following day Grameenphone promptly and illegally dismissed almost 163 employees, including the GPEU president, vice-president and five other officials, through a single email, said Mia Masud, general secretary of the union.
Bangladesh's labour law says the employment status of a union member can't change while the application for union registration is being processed.
The labour department rejected the application and the members challenged it with the Labour Appellate Tribunal and got an order in their favour in July 2014.
Grameenphone then challenged it and the verdict given in June 2016 also went in favour of the union. The GPEU got the verdict's certified copy on January 9 this year.
The GPEU leaders said they met the labour department's director-general and written to him informing of the issuance of the verdict's certified copy.
They said the unnecessary delay in the registration process was not understandable, other than a conspiracy being underway. Employees can't feel safe at their workplace without a union and multinationals allow it, they said.
Shibnath Roy, director-general of the Department of Labour, said the court ordered them to take steps in accordance with the law.
“We are always in favour of unions as part of our mandate and the department just needs to follow the process,” said Roy over the phone yesterday.
In a statement, Grameenphone said, “We acknowledge the verdict and expect the director-general of labour will now do the needful in accordance with the laws.”
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