Sanofi employees hand in demands for compensation
Sanofi employees have demanded compensation package from the country chair of the drug-maker as the French pharma giant’s repeated claims of not leaving Bangladesh fail to convince them.
“We always remember the instance of GSK as this multinational company also left the country a few months ago all on a sudden,” said an executive of the 12-member committee of employees which handed in an 18-point charters of demand to the Sanofi management on September 30.
The employees on Monday gave the Sanofi Bangladesh’s top management 96 hours to let them know if their demands would be honoured, the executive told The Daily Star.
“If our demands are not met by the stipulated time we will go for tougher action and finally we are looking at the government’s move in this connection.”
Their main demand is 10 years’ salaries and other benefits regardless of the duration of service, said the member asking not to be named for fear of reprisal.
The other major demands include payment of insurance coverage and no termination of workers until the completion of winding up of the company.
“Sanofi will also have to share the value of assets with the employees as we helped build this company.”
The French pharma giant is now planning to hand over the company to a third party for running the operations, he said, adding that there are chances of major job cuts if that happens.
For instance, many executives used to draw more than Tk 1 lakh per month as salary.
“Now where will they go for jobs if the company winds up all on a sudden? We are helpless. We will be in a big trouble if Sanofi leaves Bangladesh,” he added.
Muin Uddin Mazumder, managing director of Sanofi Bangladesh, said he did not receive any charters of demand from any quarter of employees until now.
“No decision was taken by Sanofi for leaving the country. The prediction of leaving the country by Sanofi has been affecting us very much,” he added.
However, The Daily Star obtained the received copy of the letter that was submitted to the Sanofi higher ups.
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