Biman begins golden handshake in June

Biman Bangladesh Airlines begins the process of sending 1300 of its officials and employees into voluntary retirement under the "golden handshake" scheme in June. Acting secretary of the civil aviation ministry, Sheikh Altaf Ali, told reporters that the decision was taken at a meeting of the Biman Management Council Thursday. Biman authorities will invite applications for the golden handshake from June. The process will continue in phases.

Dhaka, May 31 (bdnews24.com) -- Biman Bangladesh Airlines begins the process of sending 1300 of its officials and employees into voluntary retirement under the "golden handshake" scheme in June.

Acting secretary of the civil aviation ministry, Sheikh Altaf Ali, told reporters that the decision was taken at a meeting of the Biman Management Council Thursday.

Civil Aviation adviser MA Matin presided over the meeting at the conference room of the ministry of civil aviation and tourism. Managing Director of Biman, MA Momen, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) air commodore Sakeb Iqbal Majlish, the acting secretary of the ministry of civil aviation and the law secretary were present.

After the meeting, Sheikh Altaf Ali told journalists that as per the decision of the meeting, Biman authorities would invite applications for the golden handshake from June. The process would continue in phases, he added.

He said that once the golden handshake was started, the finance ministry would provide the organisation Tk 297 crore, as per its demand, for the process.

Altaf Ali said, "The finance secretary has told the meeting that there will be no problem in getting the allocation. A lump-sum allocation has been kept for the purpose. An ordinance will be required to turn Biman into a Public Limited Company (PLC). The meeting asked the law secretary to prepare the necessary draft for the ordinance."

On when the Biman would be turned into a PLC he said that a decision in principle had been taken in this regard. After approval of the matter at the meeting of the council of advisors, it would be implemented as soon as possible. No specific deadline had been set for it.

MA Momen told journalists that as per the decision of the meeting, 1300 people from the present 4700-strong workforce, would be given the golden handshake. The meeting also decided to calculate the assets and liabilities of Biman in two weeks for turning it into a PLC.

To minimise losses, Biman stopped its Tokyo, New York, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and Mumbai flights last year. It now operates only 20 international flights. The domestic routes have also been reduced to three from seven. It now flies only to Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Sylhet.

Biman has a fleet of 13 aircraft.

bdnews24.com/br/eh/rm/2030 hours