A day after the state-run BASIC Bank announced to abolish its own pay structure, protests by its staff broke out at its different branches.
The demonstration began when employees and officials at the Motijheel headquarters gathered in front of Managing Director Md Rafiqul Alam's office on Monday (Dec 23) morning, which later spread through other branches.
Officials from branches in the capital's Dhanmondi, Gulshan later joined them. The protesting staff demanded the decision be revoked immediately.
Transaction in the bank was low during banking hours.
Following the demonstration, the MD called on the protesting staff for talks, only to go in vain.
The staff said they are not satisfied over the talks with MD describing the decision to cut salary 'illogical'.
Describing the move as illegal, protesters said that it was unreasonable for the staff to suffer for the Board's "inefficiency, incompetence and corruption".
BASIC BANK Chairman Alauddin A Majid said that employees were demonstrating "without a proper knowledge over the issue".
He said the bank would now the government-fixed pay scale like in other state-owned banks.
BASIC Bank had been following a separate pay scale.
On Dec 22, the bank, in a letter issued by its Human Resource Department, said it has decided to reduce the salary of its employees by Tk 10,000 to Tk 30,000 because they are being paid higher than that of other state-owned banks.