The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) has pressurised the retirement of its eight officials, including two managers and three deputy managers, under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).
CSE Managing Director (MD) M Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar issued separate letters on June 27, asking them to accept VRS by July 31 or face termination.
“We request that you accept the offer… In case of your unwillingness to accept the offer, the management may follow the Human Resources manual in terminating your appointment,” the letter said.
It also said that intending to redesign the overall business perspective in the changed circumstances, the Board of Directors of the port city's bourse decided in several meetings to reshuffle its manpower.
The eight CSE officials are managers Md Nurul Azim and Md Imtiazul Islam; deputy managers Nazim Bin Nazrul, Rahi Iftekhar Reza and Masuda Begum; assistant managers Md Ali Rageb and Chowdhury Tanveer Salahuddin; and senior officer Shahin Akhter.
None of these officials, however, wanted to comment on the issue when The Business Post reached out to them.
They sent a joint letter to the chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on Monday, seeking help.
In the letter, they said, “If the CSE management becomes successful in this forced resignation, we will be in serious problems with our family members, which will not only affect CSE's image but also the image of the whole capital market.”
They said the CSE Board of Directors recently passed the VRS scheme for employees. “But unfortunately, the managing director issued letters to us, the eight CSE employees, to accept the scheme and mentioned terminating us if we did not accept the scheme and resign without any allegation, complaint, or violation of rules or regulations.”
“The CSE managing director has sent letters to force us to resign, which is illegal and inhumane. The top management has also planned to issue letters to more of our colleagues within a short period,” they claimed and added the issued letters and schemes with the letter.
Contacted, CSE MD Shaifur told The Business Post, “Our Board of Directors, in its 134th meeting, approved the VRS. The main objective of VRS is to offer a dignified exit to some employees with additional benefits through voluntary retirement.”
He said that the performance of the eight officials was not an issue but he did not agree to say anything about the sudden decision taken by CSE.
