Flora Telecom threatens to lay off employees without paying 8 months’ salary

NN Online:

Flora Telecom Limited recruited 50 individuals on a contractual basis for the position of IT Support Engineer in a project under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The appointments were made in two phases in May and June 2024. During the first three months, employees managed to collect their salaries after much persuasion. Since then, the company has stopped paying salaries to 48 of the employees.

As a result, salaries for eight months are now overdue. While the employees are struggling to survive without pay, the company has instead issued threats of dismissal. Flora Telecom officials have even advised them to look for jobs elsewhere. However, the employees claim that at the time of recruitment, they were promised job security for at least three years.

According to the affected employees, despite repeated promises, Flora Telecom has not cleared their pending salaries. On April 20, they held a sit-in protest in front of the company’s headquarters in Banani, Dhaka. Still, the matter remains unresolved.

Sources confirm that 27 people were recruited at the end of May 2024, and another 23 at the beginning of June, as IT Support Engineers by Flora Telecom. They were assigned to system automation work in various Upazila Health Complexes across the country. According to their appointment letters, each IT Support Engineer was to receive a consolidated monthly salary of 18,000 BDT.

Following instructions from Flora Telecom, the engineers were responsible for collecting and regularly reporting to the DGHS various data through software, including the number of patients visiting the health complex daily, total revenue earned, number of laboratory tests conducted, and the delivery of test reports.

Faisal Ahmad, an IT Support Engineer posted at Barlekha Upazila Health Complex in Moulvibazar, said his family is in serious trouble due to non-payment of salary for eight months. He told , “From the very beginning, the company has been delaying salary payments. They barely managed to pay the first three months. Since then, eight months have gone unpaid. Even after setting multiple deadlines, they didn’t pay us on time. Most recently, we protested at the head office. They then promised to inform us on Sunday (April 27) about when we’ll be paid.”

Now these employees fear being terminated in violation of their original contracts. Faisal added, “We were told we would have at least three years of job security. But after just one year, we have eight months of unpaid salary and now they’re asking us to look for other jobs.”

When contacted, Flora Telecom’s Chief Operating Officer S. Jawaher Ahmed told, “This was a project-based job. We were awarded the project. As the DGHS hasn’t released the funds, we’ve been unable to pay the employees. However, after they staged the protest, we assured them that we would let them know on Sunday (April 27) when they would be paid and what their future will look like.”

Regarding the allegations of being promised three years of job security and now facing layoffs, he stated, “We never made such promises in the appointment letters. That applied only to those who would be made permanent employees. These 48 individuals were not given permanent positions.”