Rana Plaza Collapse
Body to propose Tk 23 lakh in damages for each dead worker
A committee on the compensation for Rana Plaza victims is likely to propose today that each of the apparel workers who died or went missing in the building collapse should get about Tk 23 lakh in damages and one member from each of the families should get a job.
The committee will also propose that each of the workers who lost a limb should get about Tk 10 lakh
and each of the workers who lost two limbs should get about Tk 20 lakh in damages. The compensation for the loss of each additional limb should be Tk 5 lakh.
The committee that Dhaka University economics teacher MM Akash heads will today submit its report to a high-powered committee, headed by the ninth infantry division general officer commanding, Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, that the High Court set up in May to prepare compensation packages for the victims.
The high-powered committed set up the sub-committee, headed by the university teacher, to finalise the compensation for Rana Plaza victims after the main committee had proposed Tk 20 lakh in compensation for each of the people who died or went missing.
The committee will propose that the earning of lost work years for each worker will be 30 years.
The committee proposed that the average age of deceased workers should be 20 years and the average retirement year should be 50 years.
For 30 years, the basic wage of the workers will be considered Tk 5,000 a month plus an amount based on annual inflation of 6.72 per cent. The adjustment of the inflation with the present value will have a discount of about 2.5 per cent.
An economist told New Age that in keeping with the calculation, the total compensation for work years reach about Tk 18.73 lakh. The compensation for burial cost will be Tk 25,000.
The total cost for the education up to the higher secondary level for children of each of the victims will be 10 per cent of the earning of the lost work years, which is around Tk 1.8 lakh, or the value of the ‘original facility’ of education.
The compensation for gratuity will be about Tk 1.8 lakh.
In total, the compensation for each of the people who died or went missing will stand at around Tk 22.65 lakh.
For injured workers, the committee will propose compensation proportionate with the compensation for the workers who died or went missing.
The main committee identified that 1,142 workers had died and 189 injured workers would bee required long-term treatment.
The main committee set up another sub-committee to assess the degree of disability of all the injured workers.
The eight-storey Rana Plaza building that housed five clothing factories collapsed on April 24.
After the building collapse, a High Court bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam suo moto instituted a committee composed of the 9th infantry division’s general officer commanding and other agencies concerned to decide the amount of compensation.
The committee held a meeting at the Savar cantonment on August 29 in the presence of, among others, the 9th infantry division GOC, additional secretary to the labour and employment ministry Fayzur Rahman and MM Akash.
MM Akash told New Age that they had prepared a set of proposals for the compensation which would be submitted to the main committee today.
Declining to disclose details, he said that they were just proposals and the main committee would decide the amount of the compensation.
-With New Age input
