This
November 24, 2012 file photo shows a scene of Tazreen Fashions Ltd
fire. The fire that broke out in Ashulia, on the outskirt area of the
capital, took the lives of at least 112 workers.
One year after the Tazreen factory fire in Bangladesh, many 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,
a report of the New York Times said.
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, according to the report that was published on November 22.
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 last November 24.
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 1,131 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.”
Primark, whose brands include Atmosphere and Denim Company, was a
major customer of New Wave Bottoms, one of the five garment factories
inside Rana Plaza. For the last six months, Primark has paid the
salaries for not just that factory’s 550 workers but for all 3,600
Bangladeshis who worked inside the building. After setting up a series
of help desks for Rana Plaza workers and families to register, Primark
paid the salaries to surviving workers or families of the dead.
Primark has also pledged to pay another three months’ salary if no
other company steps up, but Loblaw, a Canadian retailer that makes the
Joe Fresh brand, has agreed to join that effort. Primark says it has
paid somewhat more than the $38-a-month minimum wage for each worker,
totalling at least $136,000 a month.
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.
There are precedents for such a fund — after 29 workers died in the
Hameem garment factory in Bangladesh in December 2010, Gap, J C Penney
and Target joined other retailers in paying into a modest compensation
fund.
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 percent of the factory’s production was being made for
Walmart contractors. Walmart has repeatedly been asked to contribute to
the anticipated $6 million compensation program 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
unauthorized 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.
In that email, made available by the labour fights forum,
Kamalanathan made clear that Walmart was looking to the future: “Our
focus is to positively impact global supply chain practices both by
raising our own standards and by partnering with other stakeholders to
improve the standards for workers across the industry. We will continue
to invest our resources in proactive programs that will address fire and
building safety in the garment and textile industry in Bangladesh to
help prevent tragedies before they happen.”
Asked whether Walmart would contribute to a compensation fund, Kevin
Gardner, a company spokesman, repeated part of Kamalanathan’s statement
verbatim.
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, but said his company “remains committed to improving conditions in
the factories we utilise for production of our merchandise.”
Sears said an unauthorized contractor had been producing on its
behalf at Tazreen. With Walmart and 24 other American and Canadian
companies, Sears has joined an alliance to upgrade factory safety in
Bangladesh.
Some industry analysts say Walmart, Sears and other American
retailers are reluctant to join the compensation efforts because they
fear it could be seen as an admission of wrongdoing, perhaps leading to
legal liability. Some also say the Americans fear they will look
hypocritical if they contribute to a compensation fund after they
asserted that any production done for them in those factories was
unauthorised.
Advocates hope that the compensation plans will soon take effect,
replacing the short-term financial aid from Primark and Loblaw. The
Bangladeshi government and Bangladeshi manufacturers are also being
asked to contribute, and the size of the funds would be based on a
formula that takes into account the level of workers’ wages, the extent
of survivors’ injuries and the number of years employees would have
worked had they not been killed or injured.
Star Online Report
