About 40,000 officers and employees of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) have planned for mass leave and resignations from today (Wednesday) if their demands are not met.
However, the BREB officers and employees on Tuesday (August 27) called off their planned mass leave and mass resignation programme after discussion with the chairman of BREB and head of the Power Division.
In a joint statement, three coordinators of the BREB Anti-Discrimination Movement said that they have called off the programme after getting assurance from the BREB and Power Division that they will consider their demands.
“The mass resignation and mass leave programme have been withdrawn against the backdrop of the requests from the mass people,” said the statement signed by the three coordinators-- Abdul Hakim, Asaduzzaman Bhuiyan and Ranjan Kumar Das.
The BREB officers and employees have been vocal about their demands, particularly following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
Their primary concerns include ending discrimination in service terms and securing permanent employment status. In response, they were scheduled to hold mass leave and resignation programme.
In such a situation, the Power Division formed a nine-member committee headed by Additional Secretary Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury. The committee includes four representatives from BREB employees, three from the BREB, and two from the Power Division.
Representatives of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board sat in a meeting with the newly appointed chairman of BREB Major General SM Zia-ul-Azim and the head of a Power Division committee at Bidyut Bhaban to address their demands.
Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury said that the committee decided to sit in the next meeting on September 4 where the BREB Anti-Discrimination Committee will place a position paper on their demands.
The current unrest follows a protest on August 8, when the BREB officers and employees besieged the BREB headquarters in Nikunja area in the capital. The demonstrators demanded the implementation of uniform employment rules and the regularisation of irregular employees.
The siege was lifted after the BREB authorities, with army mediation, agreed to suspend any staff transfers until the Power Division’s report was received.
The ongoing grievances center around perceived discrimination in employment practices, with workers alleging that despite holding the same qualifications and performing the same tasks, they are treated unfairly compared to their BREB counterparts.
