No Deal On Bangladesh Garment Factory Compensation Fund
Families and survivors of the Rana Plaza garment factory disaster in Bangladesh in April who are waiting for compensation from Western companies will have to wait a little longer.
A meeting Thursday of retailers and brands in Geneva, Switzerland, facilitated by the U.N.'s International Labor Organization, ended with only one company announcing measures for the victims: Primark said it would give the families of victims three months' salary.
More than 1,000 people died in the collapse of the building that housed garment factories, which made clothes for some of the world's biggest retailers. It was the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry.
IndustriALL, the international trade union federation that coordinated the talks, said in a statement that only 9 of the 20 invited companies turned up for the meeting. Among those notable by their absence, Spain's Inditex, the company that owns Zara; Benetton, Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney. Those who attended included Bon March and Primark.
"Consumers will be shocked that almost a half-year has passed since the Rana Plaza disaster with only one brand so far providing any compensation to the disaster's victims," Monika Kemperle, IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary, said in the statement. "I respect those brands that came to these meetings. But I cannot understand brands that are not around the table."
IndustriALL wanted to set up compensation funds for victims of the Rana Plaza disaster as well as the Tazreen factory fire in November 2012 that killed 112 workers. Under its plan, brands and retailers would pay $33.56 million out of a total fund of $74.58 million for victims of the Rana Plaza collapse; they would pay $2.9 million out of $6.44 million for the Tazreen fire fund.
Parallels
Bangladesh Collapse: The Garment Workers Who Survived