Labour law case: Bail for Yunus extended

The three other Grameen Telecom executives convicted alongside Yunus also received bail

The Labour Appellate Tribunal in Dhaka has again extended the bail granted to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and three other senior officials at Grameen Telecom in a labour law case. They had been sentenced to six months in jail each after a trial in a lower court.

The extension was granted by the tribunal's Judge MA Awal on Thursday. He scheduled the next hearing for Jul 4 and granted the defendants bail until then.

On Apr 16, the same tribunal had extended their bails to May 23. Yunus appeared in court to request bail on Thursday as its term was ending.

Yunus was represented by Advocate Abdullah Al Mamun at the hearing. Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments.

On Jan 1, Yunus, along with Grameen Telecom's Managing Director Ashraful Hasan, and directors Nurjahan Begum and Md Shahjahan, were each sentenced to six months in jail and fined Tk 30,000 for violations of the labour law.

A number of reactions were noted both at home and abroad over the case and Yunus’s punishment. All four of the defendants later appealed against the verdict on Jan 28. The Labour Appellate Tribunal accepted the appeal for hearing and granted bail to them while halting the verdict given by the Dhaka Third Labour Court until Mar 3. After a hearing, their bail order was extended to Apr 16.

The state counsel filed a revision case against part of the order issued by the Labour Appellate Tribunal regarding its legality. The High Court issued an order and a ruling during a Feb 5 hearing on the case.

The High Court asked why the order issued by the Labour Appellate Tribunal would not be scrapped. Yunus and other defendants, including the deputy commissioner of Dhaka on behalf of the state, were asked to reply to the ruling.

The case was filed naming Yunus and other suspects on Sept 9, 2021. The court found them guilty of failing to deliver appointment letters to 101 employees, not paying employees during public holidays, and not submitting the fixed dividends to the Labour Welfare Foundation.