Janata Bank officials allege discrimination as promotion freeze continues

The State-Owned Bank Officials Unity Council (SOBOUC), Bangladesh, on Saturday demanded the immediate approval of the proposed 2025 organizational structure (organogram) for Janata Bank PLC, warning that prolonged delays have stalled regular promotions and left thousands of officials deprived.

The council raised the demand during a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters Unit (DRU) in the capital, where its convener, Motahar Hossain, presented a written statement.

According to the written statement, the promotion process has been severely disrupted by successive circulars from the Financial Institutions Division (FID).

Following a July 7, 2025 directive instructing state-owned banks to restructure and amend their organograms, the FID on October 14 ordered a halt to all regular promotions until previously granted “supernumerary” (ex-cadre) promotions were fully adjusted.

The council noted that in 2019, Janata Bank promoted 1,926 officials to the post of Senior Officer on a supernumerary basis.

Despite a subsequent freeze on such advancements issued on November 21, 2022, state-owned banks continued the practice, elevating an additional 7,218 officials across the sector until August 2024-including 579 officials of various grades at Janata Bank.

While Janata Bank submitted its proposed organogram to the FID on December 11, 2025, to resolve the deadlock, it has yet to receive government approval.

In contrast, other major state-owned lenders-including Sonali, Agrani, and Rupali banks-have already secured approvals for their updated organograms and processed regular promotions using December 31, 2024, as the cut-off date.

This discrepancy has left Janata Bank officials facing severe discrimination and professional stagnation, speakers alleged at the press conference.

The council highlighted a rapidly worsening administrative crisis, stating that the number of officials eligible for promotion stood at 5,802 at the end of 2024, but surged to 7,268 by the end of 2025. Without the creation of new posts under a revised organogram, this backlog will continue to swell.

Under the proposed 2025 organogram, Janata Bank’s total sanctioned manpower would increase from 18,373 to 21,817.

The council argued that this expansion is essential to restore balance to human resource management, clear the promotion backlog, and inject dynamism into critical operations such as customer service, digital banking, SME and CMSME activities, risk management, and default loan recovery.

The organizational body estimated that implementing the new organogram would incur an additional expenditure of approximately Tk 13.82 crore over a three-year period-an amount they described as minimal compared to the bank’s overall financial capacity.

The SOBOUC urged the government to intervene immediately to approve the pending structure and resolve the long-standing promotion impasse to protect the interests of the bank’s workforce.