GP staff seek raise

Grameenphone employees yesterday placed a seven-point demand, including ones for salary hike and an immediate stop to “illegal” job terminations.

Despite leaps in yearly revenue growth, the market leader among mobile operators has stopped providing different benefits, Mia Md Shafiquer Rahman Masud, general secretary of Grameenphone Employees Union (GPEU), told a press conference at National Press Club.

“Last five years the operator earned Tk 54,733 crore but spent little on employees,” he said, accusing the operator of issuing threats against some employees and in some cases forcing them to work overtime without pay.

Masud said the GPEU proposed a salary structure in line with that of civil servants which witnessed a 100 percent increase in 2015 but the operator turned it down.

“We are urging the authority to accept our proposal…considering everyday expenses,” he added.

The GPEU also urged reinstating ABM Zahidur Rahman, general secretary of Grameenphone Peoples Council, an organisation of its employees, who was terminated from his job on April 16 over a sexual harassment allegation of 2016. Terming it a conspiracy, the union said the issue was resolved two years back.

Grameenphone issued a statement refuting the claims, saying they practised “zero tolerance” for cases of sexual harassment.

“Allegations of sexual harassment against this individual has been thoroughly investigated by an independent committee comprising of internal employees as well as external experts from reputed organisations such as Bangladesh Legal Aid And Services Trust, and Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association,” reads the statement.

“We followed a process as per a directive laid down by the honorable High Court. Both parties can opt for legal redress if they wish to challenge the action,” it said.

“Further, given its sensitivity and in the interest of protecting the identities of those involved we will not comment at this time.”

Grameenphone said it respected employees' right to association and their opinion in matters related to their interests and that it resolves employee issues internally in accordance with the laws of the land.

“Notably, we benchmark employees' compensation against the very top paymasters of the country and make sure that our employees are being paid competitively, fairly and equitably,” said the operator.

“Additionally, due to our good performance in 2017, our employees received larger quarterly performance bonuses, and are receiving a substantially higher profit sharing than last year,” it added.

Fazlur Rahman, GPEU acting president, and other leaders were present at the press conference.