DHAKA: One year after the Tazreen factory fire in Bangladesh, many retailers that sold garments produced there or inside the Rana Plaza building that collapsed last spring are refusing to join an effort to compensate the families of the more than 1,200 workers who died in those disasters.
The International Labor Organization is working with Bangladeshi officials, labor groups and several retailers to create ambitious compensation funds to assist not just the families of the dead, but also more than 1,800 workers who were injured, some of them still hospitalized.
A handful of retailers — led by Primark, an Anglo-Irish company, and C&A, a Dutch-German company — are deeply involved in getting long-term compensation funds off the ground, one for Rana Plaza’s victims and one for the victims of the Tazreen fire, which killed 112 workers last Nov. 24.
But to the dismay of those pushing to create the compensation funds, neither Walmart, Sears, Children’s Place nor any of the other American companies that were selling goods produced at Tazreen or Rana Plaza have agreed to contribute to the efforts.
Supporters of compensation plans say they are needed to pay for medical care for those who are paralyzed or otherwise badly injured, to provide income after a vital breadwinner died and to give families enough income so that children are not forced to quit school and go to work.
“Compensation is so important because so many families are suffering — many families don’t have anyone left to support them,” said Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity. “There’s been a good response from some European brands, but so far none of the U.S. retailers have agreed to pay a single penny for compensation.”
Paul Lister, Primark’s general counsel, said that from the day Rana Plaza collapsed, his company recognized its responsibility. Primark, which says it has already spent more than $3.2 million for aid to the victims, first provided several weeks’ emergency food assistance to 1,300 families, then short-term financial aid and now it is working to develop a compensation fund to help victims for years, even decades.
“We knew we were having clothes made in Rana Plaza — we announced that on the first day,” Mr. Lister said about the April 24 building collapse, which killed 1,129 workers. “When you know where your clothes are made, then you take responsibility for the results of where your clothes are being made. We have said very clearly that we would work to support the workers — and the families of the workers — in our supply chain.”
Primark, whose brands include Atmosphere and Denim Company, was a major customer of New Wave Bottoms, one of the five garment factories inside Rana Plaza. For the last six months, Primark has paid the salaries for not just that factory’s 550 workers but for all 3,600 Bangladeshis who worked inside the building. After setting up a series of help desks for Rana Plaza workers and families to register, Primark paid the salaries to surviving workers or families of the dead.
Primark has also pledged to pay another three months’ salary if no other company steps up, but Loblaw, a Canadian retailer that makes the Joe Fresh brand, has agreed to join that effort. Primark says it has paid somewhat more than the $38-a-month minimum wage for each worker, totaling at least $136,000 a month.
Bob Chant, Loblaw’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, said, “We believe we have a moral obligation to support the workers who are producing our products. Our chairman has voiced disappointment that more brands haven’t stepped up.”
Primark, Benetton, Loblaw and El Corte Ingles are working closely with the International Labor Organization to set up what would be one of the largest industrial compensation funds in history — one with perhaps $70 million to help the long-term needs of the Rana Plaza survivors and families. Advocates are urging more than 20 European and American retailers to commit money for compensation.
Source: nytimes.com
BDST: 0841HRS, NOV 23, 2013
