parliamentary panel at meeting about Grameenphone

A parliamentary panel at a meeting yesterday asked Grameenphone Ltd to sit with the telecommunications regulator and the ministry concerned to resolve the top mobile operator's recent job termination issue immediately. The parliamentary standing committee on the labour ministry also said the mobile operator has terminated its staff members 'arbitrarily'. The committee warned that it would ask the government to take legal steps against the mobile operator if it fails to properly address irregularities in the job termination process. The committee also said that the GP boss, Tore Johnsen, in the meeting offered to sit with the parliamentary body in an exclusive meeting to further discuss the issue, which the committee rejected. “They [GP] did not issue any notice before terminating the staff members. They [GP] just took interview and terminated the employees saying they were non-performers. They also terminated a large number of staffers in the name of organisational restructuring, which is not logical,” Israfil Alam, chief of the committee, said after the meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. Tore Johnsen said GP has undertaken an internal organisational process where some of the roles and functions have been merged with others, while new roles and functions have emerged in other areas. “Unfortunately the company has to let go some of the employees whose skill sets do not match with the new positions and we are unable to place them in other areas despite the fact that we would prefer to do that whenever possible,” said the GP chief executive. GP, which has more than 4,800 officials now, had declared a one-day general leave for all its officials on July 8, after a group of officials staged demonstration in front of its head office at Bashundhara residential area in the capital. Their contracts are valid till July 31, but the administration had their electronic access cards disabled, sources had said earlier. However, the officials who had been barred were later allowed to enter the office. Against this backdrop, the parliamentary committee decided to summon the chief executive officer of Grameenphone to explain the company's recent termination issues. After the meeting, Israfil said GP even terminated its women employees who were on maternity leave. On the GP's reasons behind the job termination, Israfil said: "It cannot be acceptable that all of a sudden you call your staffs, take an interview and terminate them on the ground of non- performance." The company recruited those staffers after taking interview and other examinations, he said. "How come those people become non-performers suddenly?” he questioned. He also said GP did not disseminate proper amount of share of its huge profit last year to its employees, which is also a violation of labour law.