Ex-GB staff seek 'total ouster' of Yunus

Dhaka, June 18 (bdnews24.com) ? Grameen Bank employees, who claim they were fired whimsically, have demanded Muhammad Yunus's ouster from all the working 36 associate organisations of the bank.

Suppressed Workers Council and Retired Grameen Employees Association jointly put forth the demand at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity on Saturday.

The Suppressed Workers Council comprises former employees, who claim to have been fired from the Grameen Bank in a high-handed manner.

Council's organising secretary engineer Mohammad Anisur Rahman told the press conference that Yunus, having failed to retain his position in the Bank, was trying hard to get associated with its sister organisations.

He feared in case Yunus was able to consolidate his association with those bodies, he would treat them as his own property. "He has already embezzled Tk 300 billion from these organisations," Rahman alleged.

After the press conference, council president Mohammad Masum Sarker told bdnews24.com, "Keen to retain his position of the managing director of Grameen Bank even after a decade of crossing the age bar of 60, Yunus is had fired about 8,000 employees deserving retirement facilities before they reached 60."

"Many of them were deprived of their due benefits," he maintained.

Sarker further said that Yunus was still carrying on as the chairman of all the associate organisations of the Grameen Bank.

Although the number of the associate organisations of the bank is 54, at 36 were in operation, he added.

Retired Grameen Employees Association president K M Shahidul Haque presented their 11-point charter of demands at the press conference.

The demands include implementation of the recommendations by the review committee on Grameen Bank, reappointment of the sacked employees and forming a new board of directors, among others.

Sarker told bdnews24.com the process of election to form a new board of directors would start from October as the term of the current board of directors would expire in December, and they were thinking of conducting campaign with an alternative candidate.

"No election was held earlier. Only the trusted men of Yunus promoted his interest by managing appointment to the board of directors," he said.

"We will challenge the legality of firing the employees before reaching 60 and would also wage a countrywide movement very soon," Sarker added.

bdnews24.com/sn/ach/nir/1950h

View the original article here