DHAKA: Some of the world`s major garment makers are to meet to discuss compensation for workers injured and killed in accidents in Bangladesh.
The meetings will be held in Geneva in Switzerland on September 11 and 12 aiming to achieve proper compensation payments to the victims and survivors of the two industrial accidents.
The two-day meeting has been called by the global trade union IndustriALL.
The meetings are set to be hosted and neutrally chaired by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the message to brands from IndustriALL will be clear, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle stated:
The families and the injured have already waited far too long. Companies who are serious about conditions in their Bangladeshi production chain can send a clear sign of their sincerity at these meetings.
They are to work out details of damages for those affected by accidents including the collapse in April of the Rana Plaza building.
More than 1,200 people died and 2,500 were injured in the disaster.
Trades unions say many families of those killed in the Rana Plaza collapse are now struggling to survive.
The meeting will also discuss compensation for victims of other accidents, including the fire at Tazreen Fashions in the capital Dhaka last November, in which over 100 people died.
The union says it is pleased that some major Western companies, among them C&A and Primark, will attend, but is shocked that some of the clothing industry`s biggest names, such as Walmart and Mango, are staying away, the BBC`s Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.
Walmart and Mango both had orders at the Rana Plaza factory.
Campaigners say the families of those killed have already waited too long for compensation.
Although some big companies are coming to the Geneva meeting, none has yet put a figure on what, if anything, they are prepared to pay.
In July, a group of 70 retailers agreed a plan to conduct inspections of garment factories in Bangladesh in an attempt to improve safety standards.
Bangladesh`s garments export industry is the second biggest in the world after China`s.
Source: BBC, industriall-union.org
BDST: 0941 HRS SEP 11, 2013
RS/BSK
