Ten years ago, more than 1,130 people were killed and 2,500 injured when a building housing several textile factories collapsed in Bangladesh. The so-called Rana Plaza disaster has highlighted the conditions in these factories, but that has not solved the problems.
The textile factories in the Rana Plaza complex produced cheap clothes for brands such as Mango and Primark. The complex collapsed due to structural errors. The owners knew about this, but did nothing about it because of corruption.
A month after the disaster, the Bangladesh Agreement, now the International Agreement for Health and Safety in the Textile and Clothing Industry, was concluded. This was supposed to improve safety in the textile factories. 192 brands have now joined.
Garment factory owners in Bangladesh say they have invested $2 billion to make their factories safe. That has, according to the news agency Reuters improved the safety of two million workers in approximately sixteen hundred factories. But a large part of the approximately 4,500 garment factories in Bangladesh is not covered by the international agreement.
Financial situation for many employees little improved
The financial conditions for employees in the textile factories in Bangladesh are also still not good. Ripon Das works in one of those factories, not far from where the Rana Plaza used to be. He works seven days a week and earns $141 a month. That is not enough to support his family, he says to the news agency Reuters.
The annual inflation rate in Bangladesh is around 10 percent. Union leaders are therefore demanding wage increases for some four million workers.
Sick leave and insurance are also still not properly arranged for workers in the garment industry in Bangladesh, writes Reuters. For example, Das’s sister had to stop working at the same factory because she was ill and had to go on leave, but was not paid.
“What happened to the killers?”
The Rana Plaza disaster was commemorated in Bangladesh on Monday by hundreds of workers and survivors. They laid wreaths at a memorial and demand justice. “Ten years have passed, but what happened to the killers?” workers shouted on their way to the memorial in the industrial town of Savar near the capital Dhaka.
A 32-year-old survivor called it a scandal that the owners of the factory were not punished. Others demanded decent compensation and lifelong medical treatment because they can no longer work.
A total of 38 people have been charged with murder. The trial against Rana Plaza owner Sohel Ranawerd resumed last year, but a verdict could be years away. According to a prosecutor, less than 10 percent of the witnesses have been questioned.
2023-04-24 19:32:49
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