Sacked workers take protest to Biman HQ

Hundreds of former Biman Bangladesh Airlines employees staged a sit-down protest on Sunday in front of Balaka Bhaban, the Biman headquarters, demanding reinstatement of their jobs.

bdnews24.com
Published : 19 July 2009, 00:44 AM
Updated : 19 July 2009, 00:44 AM
Dhaka, July 19 (bdnews24.com) – Hundreds of former Biman Bangladesh Airlines employees staged a sit-down protest on Sunday in front of Balaka Bhaban, the Biman headquarters, demanding reinstatement of their jobs.
Over 500 previously entrenched workers and officials held the hour-long protest from 11am, followed by a rally, at the state carrier's offices adjacent to Zia International Airport .
Biman Workers' League president, KM Shah Alam, said the High Court had given rulings on reinstating their jobs.
"But the Biman board of directors is not moving to give our jobs back," he said during the rally.
Officials submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the board of directors after the protest and subsequent rally.
Alam said they would observe another protest programme on July 26. "If our demands are not met we will launch a tougher movement," he said.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines was made into a public limited company in July, 2007 and some 1,863 employees were sent into forced retirement through golden handshakes the same month.
Of these, 530 employees filed separate group petitions with the High Court complaining that the authorities did injustice to them.
The court has ruled on a number of petitions, ordering Biman in recent months to reinstate hundreds of the entrenched workers and officials. Other petitions are still pending.
bdnews24.com/rb/ff/su/rah/1352h