Employees of Chaldal, one of Bangladesh’s best-known online grocery platforms, gathered in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka this week to demand payment of long-overdue salaries and other dues. The protesters said around 2,800 workers currently have salary arrears, and that cheques the company issued to cover some of these dues bounced due to insufficient funds.
A Protest Months In The Making
This is not the first time Chaldal employees have taken their grievances public. The latest demonstration came just a week after dozens of employees, mostly from the company’s Jashore operations, travelled to Dhaka and staged a sit-in at the company’s Banani headquarters, demanding salaries owed for as long as six months. Around 75 employees, mostly women, had made that trip after being invited for discussions with the CEO, but left without a clear payment timeline. Some employees ended up stranded in Dhaka without enough money to return home.
Even earlier, in March, more than 800 employees at Chaldal’s Jashore call centre staged a protest after going unpaid since December. That demonstration turned tense when workers vandalised the office gate after finding themselves locked inside, leaving at least two people injured.
What Employees Are Saying
At the recent Dhaka rally, Saiful Hasan Tushar, a former assistant director of operations at Chaldal, said his salary payments became irregular from December last year before he was terminated without prior notice. He said the company called affected employees in for a meeting on September 19 and offered to pay just 10 to 14 per cent of their overdue basic salaries, excluding gratuity and other benefits. “We asked for 60 per cent, with the remainder cleared in a month, but they declined,” Tushar said, adding that employees had been given new payment dates four to five times without resolution.
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Company’s Response
Chaldal CEO Waseem Alim has acknowledged the hardship caused to employees, attributing the delays to what he described as an “unprecedented liquidity crisis” at the company. According to earlier reporting, Chaldal has reduced its workforce from around 3,300 to about 2,200 employees over the past year as part of cost-cutting measures, after anticipated foreign investment failed to materialise and efforts to secure support from the national startup fund also fell through.
Why This Matters
The recurring wage disputes at Chaldal point to broader financial strain facing Bangladesh’s e-commerce and startup sector, where several companies have struggled with cash flow and investor confidence in recent years. For workers, many of whom depend on their salaries to cover basic living costs and, in some cases, educational expenses, the unresolved dues have left them with mounting uncertainty even as the company continues talks to work out a resolution.
Summary: Employees of online grocery platform Chaldal demonstrated in Dhaka demanding overdue salaries, alleging around 2,800 workers have arrears and that cheques issued against unpaid dues were dishonoured. The protest follows months of recurring wage disputes at the company.
