Tazreen Fashions fire accident victims are likely to get the fair amounts of compensation money before the third anniversary of the incident which took place in November 2012. C&A Foundation has started working to develop a distribution methodology and measure compensation amounts. In a deal with global union IndustriALL and Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), the Foundation announced its commitment to make a significant contribution to ensure the workers got fair amounts of compensation, said a source. According to the deal, the compensation amounts will be calculated in line with the system already developed for the Rana Plaza victims. The compensation would be counted on the basis of loss of income, provision of independent medical assessments and ongoing treatment. “We can confirm that C&A Foundation is indeed working with the Rana Plaza Claims Administration, in particular with Kazazi, the Administration’s chief commissioner, on a financial support scheme for Tazreen workers,” Thorsten Rolfes, head of corporate communications for C&A Europe replied to an e-mail. To set the compensation package and ensure its implementation, the C&A Foundation is going to form a co-ordination committee, where the ILO will act as adviser. The committee will have representatives from the government, Bangladesh Employers Federation, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and IndustryALL. “The compensation package for the Tazreen Fashion fire victims will be same of Rana Plaza compensation system,” said Roy Ramesh Chandra, former secretary general of IndustryALL Bangladesh Council. He said the Rana Plaza Claims Administration had already started working on a financial support scheme for Tazreen workers and the compensation for the Tazreen fire victims would be estimated in line with the ILO Convention 121. A medical survey would be conducted by the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) to determine the compensation for the injured workers, said Ramesh. He said the CRP would place a report to the committee mentioning the category of injury. He said the C&A Foundation wanted to complete the compensation process before the third anniversary of the tragedy, as the retailers were under tremendous pressure from the global trade unions and rights groups. Ramesh urged the government to introduce a permanent solution to compensate so that the workers could easily get their compensation in case of any untoward incident. Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar expressed the government’s willingness to extend cooperation in the process. “I have heard about the initiatives to compensate the victims by the C&A Foundation. If they want to include government in the process, we will join and provide all-out cooperation,” he said.
