PKSF to participate in the rehabilitation of Savar tragedy victims

Admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 06:00:37 +0000

Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) will provide support to rehabilitate the victims of the Savar tragedy and their children. PKSF will collect necessary information to prepare a plan for rehabilitation within two weeks. PKSF chairman Prof. Dr Kazi Khaliquzzaman Ahmed disclosed this at a discussion with the reporters at PKSF bhaban at Agargaon in the city on Monday.Prof. Khaliquzzaman informed that they have a fund of Tk 350 crore in the name of “Disaster Management Fund” from where they will provide the support to the Savar victims.
For this reason PKSF will prepare a mid-term as well as a long-term plan to provide support to the victims to overcome the misery, he added.
He also said they will provide support to educate the victim’s children.
Clarifying the fund utilisation provision he said earlier there was no scope to utilise this fund for humanitarian assistance but now the policy has been changed and thus a scope has been created to provide support for humanitarian tragedy.
He commented that the garment owners had never been convicted for their negligence that caused tragedies in the past. For this reason the garments owners are still running their factories in risky conditions and they are not afraid of administration or whatsoever, he said.
PKSF chairman also demanded trial of the garment owners who are responsible for saver tragedy.
Managing director of PKSF Mohammad Abdul Karim also spoke at the discussion.

-With The Independent input

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Loblaw, Primark to ‘compensate’ Savar building collapse victims

Admin — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:41:59 +0000

Retailers controlled by Canada’s Weston family are moving to ‘compensate’ victims of a deadly building collapse in Bangladesh as reactions to the tragedy goad companies to take greater responsibility for far-flung global supply chains, reports Glob and Mail.
Toronto-based grocer Loblaw, which makes the high-profile Joe Fresh fashion line, and British-based Primark said on Monday they would spend an unspecified amount to help those tied to the 380 or more who lost their lives, many of them employed in factories making garments for export. Primark also called on other merchants to come forward and offer compensation.
The Retail Council of Canada held an urgent meeting on Monday with Loblaw, discounter Wal-Mart Canada Corp and other major players to discuss their next steps.
Liana Foxvog, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based International Labour Rights Forum, praised the move by Primark and Loblaw to offer compensation, noting that other Western retailers involved in similar incidents in the past in Bangladeshi factories have only made such moves after pressure from activists.
‘Now we’re waiting for the US brands and all the other European brands to follow suit,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Forbes says that it remains to be seen what exactly Joe Fresh will accomplish in Bangladesh.
The company faces rampant corruption at every level of government, trickling down to the garment factories, policed by thugs who threaten workers with docked wages if they don’t work brutal 13- or 14-hour shifts, often seven days a week, a Forbes report said.
‘How did they not know these factories were illegally made, with three extra floors shoddily added?’ asked Charles Kernaghan, director at the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.
‘Nobody going into Bangladesh is naive. The only reason they’re there is so they can pay almost nothing. It was a death trap.’
Kernaghan added that Joe Fresh and other retailers with links to the Bangladesh tragedy will face ‘enormous pressure’ to overhaul their supply chains and investigate the rights of workers in the Third World factories they employ to manufacture their clothes on the cheap.
The deadly collapse has renewed concerns about the conditions of workers who make clothing for some of the biggest brands in the world.

-With New Age input

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PKSF to participate in the rehabilitation of Savar tragedy victims

Loblaw, Primark to ‘compensate’ Savar building collapse victims