One year after the Tazreen factory fire at Ashulia, many US 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, reports New York Times. The International Labour Organisation is working with Bangladeshi officials, labour 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 hospitalised.
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 on November 24, 2012.
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 paralysed 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 US 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 recognised 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,’ 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.’
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 Labour Organisation 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.
Even as labour advocates single out Primark for praise, they single out Walmart for criticism — partly because production documents recovered after the Tazreen fire indicate that two months before that fire erupted, 55 per cent of the factory’s production was being made for Walmart contractors. Walmart has repeatedly been asked to contribute to the anticipated $6 million compensation programme for Tazreen survivors and families.
‘Walmart is the one company that is showing an astonishing lack of responsibility, considering that so much of their product was being made at the Tazreen factory,’ said Samantha Maher, a campaign coordinator for the British arm of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a European anti-sweatshop group.
Walmart has also been asked to contribute to the planned Rana Plaza fund because production documents were found in the building rubble indicating that a Canadian contractor was producing jeans for Walmart in 2012 at the Ether Tex factory inside the building. Walmart said that unauthorised contractors were producing garments without the company’s knowledge.
After the International Labour Rights Forum, an advocacy group based in Washington, wrote to Walmart to urge its participation in the compensation efforts, Rajan Kamalanathan, Walmart’s vice-president for ethical sourcing, responded in an email that Walmart did not intend to participate. He wrote that ‘there was no production for Walmart in Rana Plaza at the time of the tragedy’ and that the Walmart-related production at Tazreen was unauthorised.
The Children’s Place, which had used one of the factories inside Rana Plaza, but said that factory was not supplying it when the building collapsed, declined to comment about contributing.
Asked whether Sears would provide monetary aid for Tazreen victims, Howard Riefs, a company spokesman, did not indicate an intention to do so.
-With New Age input
