Twelve Years Temporary on Three-Month Contracts: 99 Banglalink Workers Sue in Labour Court Demanding Permanent Jobs

Ninety-nine workers of Banglalink Digital Communications Limited, one of the country's leading mobile operators, allege they were hired on three-month contracts and kept working for years without ever being made permanent staff.

The engineers and workers say some of them have served seven years, some nine years, and some as long as twelve years in the company's network operation, maintenance and related work, with their contracts renewed every three months so that they remain classified as temporary.

They allege this has deprived them of the benefits regular staff receive, including annual pay rises, wages for earned leave and payment for overtime work.

Although they have long worked in posts of a permanent nature at Banglalink, they say they were never recognised as permanent staff; instead they were hired through outsourcing firms and kept on rolling three-month contracts.

At one stage, on February 2 last year, they were sent termination notices by email. The notices were withdrawn after they complained to the Department of Labour, but the workers say the underlying problem was never resolved.

They eventually filed a case in the labour court against Banglalink and the two outsourcing firms involved, Front Desk Bangladesh Limited and Searchlight Communications Limited, demanding permanent appointments, recovery of dues and the benefits guaranteed under labour law. The plaintiffs number 99 engineers and workers.

Md Rafiqul Islam has worked at Banglalink as a BSS officer through Searchlight Communications continuously since 2017 — nine years. He says his work is part of the company's core business and permanent in nature, yet he is still kept as an outsourced worker and faces discrimination in benefits compared with permanent staff doing the same duties.

Another engineer, Md Manik Uddin, said: 'For nine years we have done a permanent job while remaining temporary on paper. They said three months, and nine years have passed; still not permanent. It is a huge mental strain.' He says Banglalink has misused labour law to keep them as outsourced staff.

After receiving the termination notices, the workers filed a written complaint on February 10 last year with the Inspector General of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, alleging labour law violations and seeking eight specific remedies. On February 17 last year, the authorities withdrew the termination notices by email and confirmed the workers would remain in their jobs.

The labour and factories departments then tried to settle the matter, calling both sides to a meeting on April 10 last year, but the workers allege Banglalink did not respond. Without the remedy they expected, the 99 workers filed their labour court case on June 25 last year.

The case demands permanent appointments as well as unpaid leave wages, overtime dues and other benefits under labour law. The workers' lawyer, Shah Alam, said the temporary appointments were made to posts including network operation specialist engineer, regional operations specialist engineer, BSS specialist engineer, BSS officer and BSS rigger, and alleged that the workers' job titles were changed after the case was filed.

Tanmi Islam, a senior human resources executive at Front Desk Bangladesh Limited, said the workers were appointed as temporary staff from the outset. Banglalink issues a work order every three months, and her firm hires outsourced workers accordingly; many have worked this way for seven or eight years.

Shafiqul Islam of Searchlight Communications said the complainants' allegations are neither fully true nor fully false. Many have been there a long time, he said, but they are hired for three and six months at a time, and anyone who does not wish to work can leave.

Banglalink's chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer, Taimur Rahman, said Banglalink has received notices in some cases that are now before the court. The company has presented its position properly before the court and will abide by any court decision or direction.