Industrial dispute settlement:2nd arbitration ends without decision

The second tripartite arbitration session among the representatives of Grameenphone, Labour Ministry and GP Employees Union on industrial dispute settlement has ended without any decission.
The meeting was likely to determine the fate of 180 Grameenphone permanent employees who lost their jobs during COVID-19 crisis in 2020.
According to media reports, 180 permanent workers fell prey of the illegal lock out by Grameenphone owners in May 2020 amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
As a result, Grameenphone Employees Union has written to the company authorities to immediately reappoint the 180 permanent workers affected by this illegal lock-out by the owner. But the Grameenphone authorities refused to enter into collective bargaining with the Grameenphone Employees Union without arranging any meeting to settle the dispute through negotiation.
In such circumstances, an industrial dispute complaint was filed with the Labour Department on January 20, 2021. Later the industrial dispute complaint proceeded successively in the High Court and finally in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
However, while the industrial dispute case was ongoing, Grameenphone authorities illegally fired 159 more permanent workers on June 20, 2021, ignoring Section 228 of the Bangladesh Labour Act.
For the final disposal of the ongoing industrial dispute case filed in continuation of this, the Appellate Division on September 7 ruled that the ongoing industrial dispute was valid and directed the Labour Department to resolve it in accordance with law through a tripartite meeting.
But Grameenphone was absent at the first tripartite meeting of the Arbitration Board at the Labour Department on November 8 this year. However, the arbitration board heard the plaintiff's statement.
Sources in the meeting said that during the second tripartite meeting, the Grameenphone representative informed the Arbitration Board that they had made an appeal to the High Court for a full explanation of the judgment of the Appellate Division.
Regarding these issues, Director of Labour Department (Trade Union and Arbitration) SM Enamul Haque told Views Bangladesh, "A legal notice has been served, the writ has been filed with the High Court in this regard. Later, I came to know that it has been stayed. No further decision was made yet. After getting the certified copy, we will understand what actually happened. We are in a process. But now the High Court halted the process, or asked to keep it stayed; Or revised - we still do not know anything officially. After knowing the details, we will implement the order given by the court."
Grameenphone Head of Communications, Sharfuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, said that Grameenphone respects the laws of the country and conducts business activities in compliance with all rules. We will take further steps as per the directions of High Court.