A civil case was lodged in the United States of America (USA) against Bangladesh and three apparel buyers to get compensation for Rana Plaza victims and remedy for further incidents, officials said. One Abdur Habibur Rahman filed the case with the district court in the District of Columbia, USA. He filed the case in favour of Rana Plaza victims Sharifa Begum (deceased) and Mahamudul Hasan Hridoy (injured) on April 23 last. The case was filed under “the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, 20 U.S.C and 1332 (d) (2); and rule 23 of the Federal Rule of Civil procedure.” Defendants of the case are: the government of Bangladesh, JesiPenny Corporation, Inc, the Children Place and Wal-Mart stores, Inc. “Lack of basic standards for workplace healthy and safety (and failure of the Bangladesh government and western buyers and to audit and enforce the minimal standards that do exists), workers at garment factories in Bangladesh are subjected to a number of systematic human rights violations, including harassment and other abuse,” the plaintiff said. Plaintiff Mr Rahman had accused the government of Bangladesh of not taking proper steps to prevent such incidents. The allegations include not taking action despite several fire incidents and building collapses in the past few years, construction of Rana Plaza without observing proper building standards and lack of monitoring by local regulators. Besides, there are no basic standards for workplace health and safety in RMG sector. A Bangladeshi labour leader, Aminul Islam, was found tortured to death. Slow rescue operation at Rana Plaza and poor application of laws and regulations were also included in the case. Moreover, a number of allegations were also raised against the three buyers including low-cost subcontracting, sourcing from less compliant RMG factories, over-sourcing, sourcing without adequate supervision and inspection. The workers of those sourcing factories remained at risk of suffering and personal injury of health, the plaintiff mentioned. In this connection, a meeting was held on Tuesday last at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to fix a work plan on the case. According to the meeting sources, the Ministry of Law will see the legal side of the case and the ministry of labour and employment will execute the administrative work. “The ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) is taking regular updates on the issue. At present, we are not well aware of it, so we are trying to collect detailed info on the case,” senior secretary of the MoC Hedayetullah Al Mamoon told the FE on Tuesday. “After getting necessary information, the ministry concerned will go for further action in this regard,” he said.
