Families of Rana Plaza victims continue to call for compensation

Relatives of Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions victims form a human chain to demand immediate payment of compensation, in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Star

Factory owners and apparel buyers continue to ignore the call for compensation despite repeated demonstrations by families of dead and injured workers of Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions.
About 200 children and relatives of the deceased and injured workers formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka yesterday, demanding immediate payment of compensation.
"We had a television set but it was sold to meet the family needs after the death of my father," said Foara Akhter, who lost her father in the Rana Plaza building collapse in April last year.
Foara, who reads in class IV, said her family got nothing but Tk 45,000, and that too in phases, from a buyer.
Most of the money was spent on her grandfather's treatment, said the 10-year-old girl. She was holding a photo of her father whose dead body was not found.
A couple of yards away was an eight-year-old boy, Shuvo Islam Bijoy, holding the photos of his parents both of whom worked on the fourth floor of the Rana Plaza building.
Bijoy now lives with his grandmother Razia Begum. "No compensation has come so far. It has become tough to meet all his needs including schooling," Razia said.
Since the Rana Plaza collapse that claimed at least 1,130 lives, a few retailers such as Bonmarché, El Corte Ingles, Loblaw and Primark pledged $40 million to compensate the survivors and the families of the dead workers, according to a report by Associated Press.
The surviving workers and the families of the deceased got financial assistance from the government, and salary and bonus from the owners. But they did not get any compensation from the owners, retailers and brands.
However, UK-based retailer Primark yesterday started registering the names of the victims to give compensation to 581 workers of New Wave Bottoms, which was housed on the second floor of the ill-fated building.
Primark is giving away the compensation only to the workers of New Wave Bottoms as the retailer said it used to source garments from this unit.
Primark will start giving the compensation from March 28, said Roy Ramesh, general secretary to the IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, the Bangladesh chapter of IndustriALL Global Union.
At the human chain, leaders of National Garments Workers Federation (NGWF) said, except for emergency cash assistance from the government, BGMEA and other stakeholders, the families of the workers did not get any compensation.
The families of the victims of Tazreen Fashions also did not get any compensation, although 16 months have passed after the fire that killed at least 112 workers, the NGWF said.
Coalition of Cambodian Apparels Workers Democratic Union also joined the human chain on behalf of 17 workers rights organisations from Belgium, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Nepal.
The rights groups demanded immediate payment of compensation on the basis of 'actuarial estimates of lost earnings'.
They also called upon the Rana Plaza Compensation Arrangement Coordination Committee to act fast.