Published in The Financial Express on Thursday, 17 April 2014.
Compensations continue to elude Rana Plaza victims
Monira Munni
The Rana Plaza victims are yet to get promised compensations though nearly one year has gone by since the tragic incident, causing untold sufferings to the several hundred affected families, victims and labour leaders say.
Except a few pledges made and initiatives taken so far by the global buyers and other stakeholders, no specific announcement has been made nor any decision taken yet about the payment of the compensations, they say.
Although some financial and humanitarian supports have been extended to a number of victims and their families, most of the affected families are still in the dark about payment of their due compensations. None can say when and how the compensation money will be paid, they say.
Different labour rights groups and social organisations have long been demanding rightful compensations to the victims and their families after the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013. The deadliest disaster in the RMG sector left at least 1130 workers dead and several hundred others seriously injured.
The local and international labour rights groups have threatened to go for massive agitations by engaging the social networks apart from distributing poster and leaflets, if the stakeholders fail to compensate the victims and their families before completion of one year of the deadliest disaster in the RMG sector.
“I am totally in the dark about my future. I am unable to work and even can’t move easily,” Yeanur Akter, a 15-year-old girl who worked for the Ether Tex on the second floor of the Rana Plaza told the FE.
Yeanur, who had joined the garment factory with her mother Anwara Begum, who had died in the building collapse, underwent surgery on her both legs and now is undergoing therapy at the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP).
“I myself didn’t get any financial support either from the government or from garment manufacturers,” she said.
Her father had received Tk 0.3 million (three lakh) from the Prime Minister’s Office and Tk 45,000 on behalf of her mother through bKash, she added.
Shapla Begum, who had been working on the third floor of the Rana Plaza, said: “I and my younger brother Solaiman Hossain worked at the same factory. I am lucky to survive. But my brother is still missing.”
“Now I am in dire straits as I have to look after my brother’s kids along with three of mine,” she said adding that how she could bring up those kids apart from hers without any help from others.
However, a good number of people still gather in front of the Rana Plaza site. Some of them gather there to know about the fate of their missing family members and some others gather there with the hope of getting financial support.
Families of some missing victims said that their sufferings have mounted, as they have not got any financial support or any wage.
Nazma Akter, a labour leader, said the victims’ families were yet to get any compensation. What they had received was emergency relief only.
Amirul Huq Amin, another labour leader, said: “We have been demanding proper compensation for families of the deceased and the survivors for last one year.”
He demanded speedy disbursement of the compensation money among the workers and the victims’ families before the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse.
“If they are not properly compensated according to the ILO convention, we will go for massive demonstration,” he threatened.
Labour leaders say lack of transparency still persists over payment of the compensations even almost a year after the disaster.
“There are a lot of commitments from both home and abroad. But things are progressing very slowly, especially when it comes to the compensation issue,” Ms Nazma said.
The financial assistances received from different quarters including the Prime Minister were something like ‘charity’, not ‘compensation’.
Echoing Ms Nazma, Roy Ramesh Chandra, general secretary of Industrial Bangladesh Council, said the compensation should be paid in line with the ILO convention-121 and the guidelines of the UN and the OECD.
“True, no previous government set any such example. But the PMO’s financial support is not compensation, as it has not been disbursed by following any set standard,” he added.
Dr KG Moazzem, Additional Research Director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said there had been many commitments, but most of them had yet to be met while some others had been in progress.
“The Rana Plaza victims are passing very tough days and their miseries know no bounds with the compensation process getting lengthy,” he said.
He underlined the necessity of bringing the missing ones under the compensation scheme.
According to sources, so far 206 victim have been identified through DNA tests while labour leaders have claimed that the number of missing people is still more than 100.
A committee has recommended Tk 1.45 million in compensation for each of the workers who had died and who had lost at least two of their limbs each. But there is no further progress in it.
But labour leaders refused to accept the recommended amount as compensation. They said compensation should be fixed based on the life expectancy of the workers, who had died and the degree of physical impairments the injured workers had suffered.
However, registration of compensation claims from the victims and their families started on March 24 last under the Rana Plaza Arrangement monitored by the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee. The process could take at least three to six months to complete, people close to the initiative said.
The coordination committee comprising representatives from the government, the garment industry, trade unions including the IndustriAll Global Union, and non-governmental organisations including Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) and Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) was formed to devise a comprehensive and independent process to deliver support to the victims, their families and the dependants in a predictable manner consistent with international labour standards. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is acting as a neutral chair of the committee.
On the other hand, a half of the companies that had been linked with the Rana Plaza factories have made commitments, which are just one third of the total requirements. Of the total commitments, so far $7 million has been collected. Only Primark has donated the highest amount of US$ 1.0 million directly to the fund while another $9 million would be paid directly to the workers of the New Wave Bottoms, a factory of the Rana Plaza.
Currently 15 brands, including Benetton, Matalan, Adler Modemarkte and Auchan, have failed to make even an initial contribution to the Donor Trust Fund, according to it.
An advance to the tune of Tk 50,000 will be paid to each of the 3,639 Rana Plaza incident survivors and the families of those, who had died, before completion of one-year of the industrial disaster. Of them, about 430 surviving workers and families of the dead workers who had worked for the New Wave Bottoms got their respective shares of the money.
According to labour ministry officials, a total of 962 Rana Plaza victims got financial support from the PM’s fund ranging from Tk 0.1 million to Tk 0.5 million and about 36 others Tk 1.0 million to Tk 1.5 million depending on their injuries.
The PMO so far disbursed a total of Tk 221.36 million including DNA sampling costs, treatment and other supports, they added.
The labour leaders and experts called upon all buyers and other stakeholders including government and garment makers to pay due compensations to the Rana Plaza victims and their families.