“Nobel laureate Dr. Mohammad Yunus hired lobbyist not to pay dues of Taka 3.0 billion of his workers”

Professor Dr. Mohammad Yunus's Grameen Telecom which is a shareholder of Grameenphone, has hired a lobbyist at Tk 140 million to win 107 cases lodged against it for realising Tk 3.0 billion in worker-welfare dues”. Grameen Welfare and Dhaka Logistics Firm have signed an agreement to win the cases. Mohammed Yunus himself has approved it on June 14, 2021. Dr. Yunus’s Grameen Telecom owns 34.20 percent of the mobile operating company Grameenphone. 

Grameen Telecom receives a dividend of over a thousand crore Taka’s every year from Grameenphone. In 2019 alone, they received a dividend worth Taka 1,300 crore. But, Grameen Telecom never paid five percent of these dividends to the workers’ welfare fund though they had a legal obligation to share profits with its employees.

It has been accumulated to around Taka 300 crore in this way since 2006. Finding no way, the angry workers have filed a total of 107 cases seeking their arrears. On June 14, 2021, Dr. Yunus approved the agreement with Dhaka Logistics Services and Solutions in a virtual meeting to win these cases. The Grameen Telecom Workers Employees Union made the allegation against Dr. Yunu’s Grameen Telecom. “Meanwhile, union leaders have demanded the appointment of an administrator in Grameen Telecom for attempting to deprive workers and employees of their rights”.

At a press conference at the National Press Club, union leaders said Grameen Welfare and Dhaka Logistics Firm earlier signed an agreement to win the cases. Union President Kamruzzaman Apollo and General Secretary Feroze Hassan Mahmud, among others, addressed the briefing. Grameen Telecom receives more than Taka 10-billion dividend every year from Grameen Phone. The arrears have now accumulated to an estimated Taka 3.0 billion since 2006.

Finding no way out, the workers have filed a total of 107 cases seeking their arrears a few years back. It is to be noted that ten Grameen Telecom employees filed cases against Grameen Telecom and its chairman Dr. Yunus.

Nowadays people in Bangladesh termed Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus as a cheat and accused him of not giving shares of Grameen Phone profits to Grameen Bank in breach of the promise he made before setting up on the telecom company.  A former chief of naval staff said Dr. Yunus had set up Grameen Phone using Bangladesh Railway’s optical fiber. Instead of taking action against petty criminals, catch him with an iron hand as he laundered thousands of crores of taka from Bangladesh.

Grameen Phone was third in the bidding process and was not supposed to get the license but he was given a license thinking that the profits would go to the poor people through Grameen Bank but unfortunately, he turned it into his personal property. He sold a good portion of the shares which ought to go to the state. He had cheated as profits of Grameen Phone were not given to Grameen Bank. During the 1998 flood, 70% of the country was under water but Grameen Bank staff tortured people for weekly installment.