Four persons, including Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, were sentenced to six months in prison and fined Tk 25,000 each in the case of violation of labor laws. Labor Court Judge Sheikh Marina Sultana announced the verdict on Monday (January 1). The judgment asked to pay all Grameen Telecom workers their dues within 30 days. At the same time, within five minutes of announcing the verdict, the same court also granted bail to the accused.
The other defendants in the case are MD of Grameen Telecom Md. Ashraful Hasan, Director Nurjahan Begum and Md. Shah Jahan
While responding immediately after the announcement of the verdict, Dr. Yunus said, I was punished for a crime I did not commit. If you call it justice, then you can.
On this day, the verdict was announced from 2:15 PM. Dr. Muhammad Yunus attended the court at 1:40 to hear the verdict.
Security has been beefed up in and around the court premises in accordance with announcing the verdict. A large number of police were deployed. Domestic and foreign media representatives gathered to collect news.
On September 9, 2021, in the Third Labor Court of Dhaka, Arifuzzaman, the labor inspector of the Directorate of Factories and Institutions, became the plaintiff. The case was filed against four people including Dr. Yunus. In the case, allegations were made under Section 4 of 7, 8, 117 and 234 of the Labor Act for non-deposit of specific dividends to the Labor Welfare Foundation, non-permanent employment of workers, non-encashment of public holidays. According to the complaint, according to the Labor Act, 2006 and Bangladesh Labor Rules, 2015, the employment of the workers or employees of Grameen Telecom has not been made permanent even after completing the apprenticeship period. Payment of annual leave, encashment of leave and cash against leave is not paid to workers or employees working in the organization.