Court Correspondent:

The bail period of four including Grameen Telecom chairman and Nobel Laureate economist Dr Muhammad Yunus have been extended in the cases related to labour law violation filed by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE). The court has set 4 July as the date for the next hearing in this case.

Chairman of the labour appellate tribunal in Dhaka, MA Awal (senior district and session judge) passed the order today, Thursday morning.

Dr Yunus’ lawyer Abdullah-Al-Mamun told Prothom Alo that the court has extended the bail period of four people including Nobel Laureate economist Dr Muhammad Yunus.

Earlier, Dr Muhhamad Yunus appealed for bail by appearing before the labour appellate tribunal and the labour appellate tribunal accepted the appeal of those four including Dr Yunus for hearing on last 28 January.

The third labour court in Dhaka sentenced four people including Dr Yunus to six months in prison in this case on last 1 January. At the same time, a fine of Tk 30,000 was levied on each one of them. The other three convict are former managing director of Grameen Telecom Ashraful Hasan, director Noor Jahan Begum and Md Shahjahan.

After the verdict, the third labour court in Dhaka had granted one month interim bail to those four including Dr Yunus on condition of filing appeal at the High Court.

The case was filed against four people including Dr Yunus at the labour tribunal on 1 September 2021. The charges were framed in this case on 6 June last year. Meanwhile, the recording of testimonies began on 22 August, which ended on 9 November. And, the hearing of arguments in the case ended on last 24 December.

It was alleged in the case that the recruitment of the workers or employees of Grameen Telecom was not made permanent even after completion of their apprenticeship period according to the Labour Act, 2006 and Labour Rules, 2015. Annual leave, encashment of leave and cash against leave was not granted ether to workers or employees working in the organisation.

It also added that Worker Participation Fund and Welfare Fund have not been established in Grameen Telecom. Besides, an amount equivalent to 5 per cent of the profit has not been deposited in the fund constituted under the Labour Welfare Foundation Act.