Wal-Mart, JC Penney, The Children’s Place and the government of Bangladesh have been sued by the victims and the families of the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse. The lawsuit, filed in the federal court in Washington, claims the retailers and the government were aware of the unsafe working conditions.When the eight-story building collapsed on April 24 two years ago, over 1,100 people were killed and about 2,515 people were injured.“Defendants knew, or with the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have known, that the Rana Plaza facility was not safe for human habitation,” said the lawsuit filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday. The Bangladesh government breached its duty to its citizens by failing to properly inspect the building, failing to ensure compliance with local construction standards and failing to ensure the safety of factory workers, the lawsuit states. Retail defendants breached their duty to workers in the building by failing to implement standards and oversight mechanisms designed to ensure the health and safety of workers who manufactured clothing for their stores, it added. According to the complaint, the retailers profit from the system of sourcing through subcontractors.“Although retailer defendants, and other Western buyers, contain strong language in their public policies against non-transparent subcontracting, factory owners report that many buyers turn a blind eye to the subcontracting practice.”The day before the collapse, cracks were found in the building and an engineer declared the building unsafe. “Since it’s a pending legal matter, we’re going to decline the opportunity to comment,” said JC Penney spokeswoman Daphne Avila.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/rana-plaza-victims-sue-retailers-government-us-court-79447

Success stories are always full of sweet and sour events since achievements do not come on a silver platter. What could be a better example of this than our garment industry? The industry that emerged as a small non-traditional sector in export in the late 1970s has now become crucial to our economy as the main source of export earnings and employment generation. Beginning its journey with only 130 workers and export earnings of $12,000, it is now a $25-billion sector that employs around 4.4 million people, 80 percent of whom are women. Now we are the second largest apparel exporting country in the world and the sector has been contributing to the economy with export earnings, employment generation, women empowerment and poverty alleviation for the last 35 years.Was the sector’s journey rosy? The answer is a simple no. It has faced a number of challenges, including child labour issues, multi-fibre arrangement phase-out, and global recession.We have dealt with these challenges and been able to sustain growth. However, the biggest challenge for the industry emerged after the tragic building collapse in 2013. Many thought the incident would mark the end of the sector’s journey. But what we have seen is a new beginning. The industry that transformed the economy and lives of millions of people has itself been transformed.The collapse of the Rana Plaza building was a wake-up call for us — a call to turn around and build a safe and sustainable industry. We can proudly say that as a nation, we have once again proved that we can face any challenge, be it natural or manmade. Given the size of our apparel industry, ensuring worker safety in the garment factories was a daunting task for us but we took up the challenge and it is heartening to see that significant progress has been made in the areas of safety, including fire, and electrical and structural safety, in the garment factories.For the first time in the history of the global garment industry, all stakeholders have realised that ensuring safety and wellbeing of the workers is a shared responsibility and this feeling has inspired governments, brands, buyers, suppliers, entrepreneurs, and workers to work hand-in-hand.This is probably the only instance in the world where brands and buyers who compete with each other have come together to make an industry safe and sustainable. European brands and buyers formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety while the North American ones initiated the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. The National Tripartite Action Plan for Building and Fire Safety was adopted by the government as well. Till now, 2,643 factories have been inspected by three initiatives — 1,261 by Accord, 647 by Alliance and 735 factories by National Action Plan.What is more encouraging is that only around 1.25 percent of the inspected factories were found vulnerable and closed down immediately. All the inspection reports of the factories are available at the Fair Factory Clearinghouse (FFC) database, which is accessible by all the buyers, making our progress ever more transparent and credible.Moreover, factories are implementing corrective action plans provided by Accord and Alliance. The government has taken a number of steps to augment the safety initiatives. The Directorate of Inspection for Factories and Establishments has been upgraded to the status of a department. The government has recruited 200 inspectors, made the import of safety equipment duty-free and launched a safety hotline for workers. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association also took a number of steps to supplement workplace safety efforts by forming a team of 35 fire trainers in December 2013. This team trained 83,678 workers and staff members in 2,386 factories. BGMEA runs a “crash programme” on fire safety and so far 20,188 personnel of 2,342 factories have been trained. We have also made significant progress in the areas of knowledge, awareness and rights issues. The Labour Law 2006 was amended within just 90 days of the building collapse, making the law more favourable towards ensuring worker rights. The dramatic progress in new trade union registration is a tangible result of this amendment. Until 2012, there were only 138 trade unions in the sector; from January 2013 till now, 304 new trade unions have been registered. The minimum wage of the garment workers has also been increased by 219 percent over the past five years. The Better Work Programme has been launched by International Labour Organisation and International Finance Corporation. There goes an old adage that every cloud has a silver lining and it best relates to our garment industry. When all the inspections will be over and the factories complete their corrective action plans, the garment industry of Bangladesh can be regarded as the safest industry in the world. The writer is the vice-president of BGMEA and editor of the Apparel Story.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/paradigm-shift-garment-industry-79464

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced a three-year Worker Empowerment Program in Bangladesh to support labour rights, union organising and women’s empowerment in the ready-made garment sector. The announcement coincides with the second anniversary of the April 24, 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers and injured over 2,500, said a statement of USAID released on Friday in its website. “USAID Worker Empowerment Program demonstrates the United States’ vigilance in promoting fundamental labor rights, including workplace safety and health, so tragedies such as Rana Plaza can be prevented in the future,” said Jonathan Stivers, USAID assistant administrator for Asia. “We have partnered with the government of Bangladesh, international donors, and the garment industry to empower workers by giving them a real voice in this vital sector and to reform labor laws consistent with international standards.” The new Worker Empowerment Programme aims at strengthening the capacity of independent workers’ organisations by empowering the workers in these organisations, and particularly women workers, with the skills and support necessary to protect their rights, promote their interests and improve conditions in their workplace and community. This program complements the existing Global Labour Programme that trains workers on labour laws, provides legal support to workers and assists workers in organising and registering new unions. Since inception, this program has registered nearly 300 new labor unions in the ready-made garment industry, covering more than 65,000 workers. The European Union and the United States, in close cooperation with the ILO, will remain closely engaged with the government of Bangladesh in the spirit of partnership to continue work together to ensure that economic growth and sustainable development go hand-in hand with workers’ safety and rights, read the statement. Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building located at Savar that housed five RMG factories collapsed on April 24, 2013, killing over 1,135 workers and injuring over 2,500 people. Following the factory disaster, the workers rights issues came under the spotlight and the global community including Bangladesh government and the sector people have taken steps to ensure workers’ rights in the workplace.

Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2015/apr/27/usaid-announces-programme-empower-workers-bangladesh#sthash.sQ6q1oHA.dpuf

Speakers at a programme in the district have slammed the ready-made garment owners for not playing due role for the sake of the children who lost their father or mother in the Rana Plaza disaster that claimed 1,135 lives on April 24, 2013. The participants made the statement in an event titled “Sishu Conference” hosted by Sishu Palli Plus at Tengra village in Sreepur upazila yesterday, where the children who are being benefited from the organisation were present as well. Speaker Md Saifur Rahman, Sreepur social welfare officer, said whereas the country’s RMG owners, who have become rich by dint of the labour of the workers, have remained indifferent to the suffering of the children, in this regard many foreigners including British national Rob Jenkinson have come forward with their helping hands. Sishu Palli Plus Director Sayed Shamsul Alam Chowdhury who presided over the conference said a total of 147 children of the Rana Plaza victims are getting financial assistance every month. A class-VIII student named Farzana Akter, hailing from Satvagia village in Shivchar upazila of Madaripur district, said she lost her mother in the deadly disaster and since then the organisation has been giving a donation of Tk3,500 to her and her brother each month. The assistance has immensely helped them to keep continuation of their studies, she went on. Sreepur Upazila Vice-Chairman Rafiquel Islam Mandal Bulbul and Telhati UP Chairman Abdul Baten, among others, were present in the event.

Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/apr/27/rmg-owners-urged-help-rana-plaza-victims-children#sthash.AD8op8Dz.dpuf

The North American brands and retailers’ group has decided to conduct fresh inspections of their listed readymade garment factories to ensure the structural safety of the units after an earthquake and its aftershocks jolted the country on Saturday. The platform, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, has assembled a team of structural engineers to visit each building where there is a concern. The Alliance in a news release on Sunday said the earthquake and its aftershocks should be taken as an indication of just how difficult it could be to ensure the structural safety of buildings in an earthquake zone. Although the Alliance has not seen immediate damage at their listed readymade garment factories in Bangladesh, the initiative think that does not mean that those buildings are structurally sound following the aftershocks. ‘Fresh inspections must now be executed to ensure the structural safety of factories, and we have assembled a team of structural engineers, led by our Chief Safety Officer, to visit each building where there is a concern within the next 48 hours,’ Alliance said. The retailers’ group expressed its condolences to the victims of earthquake in Nepal where more than 2,000 people died. ‘We extend our deepest condolences to earthquake victims and their families, and we will continue to take all steps possible to ensure that this tragedy does not result in injury or loss of life in Bangladesh garment factories,’ the Alliance said. Following the earthquake Alliance has received several calls from workers concerned about cracks in factory buildings and the group has taken initiative to ensure that the owners of these factories evacuate workers immediately, if necessary, it said. ‘We are also taking a number of additional measures to work with each factory owner, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Government to ensure that all workers are safe,’ the retailers’ group said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers including Walmart and Gap, formed the Alliance undertaking a five-year plan, which set timelines and accountability for inspections and training and workers empowerment programmes. The Alliance started inspection in the garment factories in February 2014 and completed primary safety assessment of its listed 600 factories in July that year. The retailers’ group found immediate risk in 19 factories and sought decision from government-established review panel. The panel decided to close five factories fully, 12 partially and allow two to operate with reduced loads. The Alliance has set a target to complete all remediation requirements and final inspections of its 600 supplier factories in the country by July 2017.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114955/quake-prompts-alliance-to-go-for-fresh-inspections/#sthash.hqMJ4WNC.dpuf

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has declared a three-year programme for worker empowerment in Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector that caters for western users. Promoting labour rights, right to organise union and women’s empowerment in the export industry are avowed objectives of the agenda, announced on the occasion of the second anniversary of Rana Plaza tragedy. As per the announcement, the new worker-empowerment agenda aims to strengthen the capacity of independent workers’ organisations by empowering workers, particularly women workers, with the skills and support necessary to protect their rights, promote their interests and improve conditions in their workplace and community. This programme complements the existing global labour programme that trains workers on labour laws, provides legal support to workers, and assists them in organising and registering new unions. Since inception, this programme has registered nearly 300 new labour unions in the readymade garment industry, covering more than 65,000 workers, said a USAID press release Sunday. It said the announcement on the new programme coincides with the second anniversary of Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers and injured over 2,500. On this occasion, Jonathan Stivers, USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia, said USAID’s Worker Empowerment Program demonstrates the United States’ vigilance in promoting fundamental labour rights, including workplace safety and health, so tragedies such as Rana Plaza can be prevented in the future. “We have partnered with the Government of Bangladesh, international donors, and the garment industry to empower workers by giving them a real voice in this vital sector and to reform labor laws consistent with international standards.” The announcement also said the European Union and the United States, in close cooperation with the ILO, will remain closely engaged with the Government of Bangladesh in the spirit of partnership to continue their work together to ensure that economic growth and sustainable development go hand in hand with workers’ safety and rights.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/04/27/90443

Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) closed three buildings on Saturday in Narayanganj finding workers’ safety at risk, officials said. The three buildings that accommodated more than a dozen factories mainly produced apparel products including hosiery, knitwear and shirt collars for the local market. “We have closed the buildings due to cracks found there. It might have occurred due to the earthquakes,” DIFE Inspector (Narayanganj) Farhana Kabir told the FE. Being informed by Police that the buildings tilted, the DIFE with concerned magistrate sealed the three buildings, she said adding there was also existence of cracks. One building at the holding number 65/14, Nayamati, Narayanganj, housed about 16 factories, she said adding most of them did not even have a name and they produced hosiery and other products. When asked she said the factories were announced closed immediately after the earthquake and they could not get detailed information about the remaining two buildings-holding number 65/20 and 65/22. None of the two buildings’ authorities could be contacted till Sunday, she added. Meanwhile, a good number of garment workers in different industrial belts especially in Dhaka, Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj were injured while rushing out in panic during Sunday’s earthquake. “Some 100-150 workers in different industrial zones were injured when they rushed to go out from the factory buildings in panic,” Industrial Police Director General Abdus Salam said. They came out from the factories at noon and did not join the workplace, he added. 50 per cent of the production remained suspended during Saturday and Sunday due to the earthquake panic and most of the factories especially in Ashulia and Gazipur remained closed, Md Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/04/27/90463

Japan government has taken an initiative to make vulnerable building of the country’s garments factories safe for the RMG workers through conducting retrofitting, a technology to make vulnerable building jolt resistant.Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future,” Senior Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Hiroyuki Tomita said in a seminar at a city hotel here.The Project Capacity Development of Natural Disaster Resistant techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings (CNCRP), implemented by Public Works Department (PWD) with technical support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organised the seminar titled “Development of Safer Building. Overcoming the Tragedy of Rana Plaza Incident”.Under CNCRP, a team of Japanese experts has been transferring retrofitting technology to the engineers of PWD and other public and private organisations since 2011. Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it.The JICA High official said the Japanese experts have already started their work to do retrofit to two RMG factories initially and the JICA will implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country.In a presentation JICA’s Assistant Programme Officer Kaniz Fatema said after tragic incident of Rana plaza, JICA took a programme titled “RMG Sector Safe Environment Project” and created a Taka 100 crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers.Under the programme, JICA requested the RMG owners to assess their factories building as well as to take the opportunity of the provided JICA fund to make the building strengthen. As per the JICA’s call a total of 300 RMG factories applied for being assessed and of these factories, 214 were selected for the assessment by the CNCRP.Of the 214 RMG factories, we found 74 percent have no legal construction permit or structural drawing, Kaniz said adding, even 65 percent of the buildings, those have legal permit documents and structural drawing, do not comply standard set by Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC).The CNCRP project selected two factories and taken initiative to conduct retrofitting by providing the owners soft loan of 850,000 and 600,000 US dollar respectively.”If we only consider to do retrofit to only those 26 percent of the country’s total RMG factories that have legal construction permit and structural design, it will need 1.17 billion US dollar,” she said.In another presentation, JICA expert team leader Fumio Kaneko said there is a concept that retrofitting is very expensive and it is not viable for economy like Bangladesh.But it is totally wrong. Usually it only costs 10-30 percent of new construction. Kaneko said Bangladesh is at a high risk of earthquake as the country has not experienced any major earthquake since the 19th century and most of the buildings in Bangladesh are works of masonry that increases the risk further.For example if 300,000 buildings are in Dhaka, 150,000 buildings will be damaged by a moderate earthquake, he said.”The Rana Plaza tragedy was indeed a wake-up call for us. It is calculated that even reinforced concrete (RC) buildings are 3-5 times more vulnerable to those buildings in Japan,” he said.PWD Chief Engineer Md. Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan spoke as the chief guest while CNCRP project director Engr Md. Ahsan Habib gave welcome speech.JICA Expert Deputy team leader J Matsuo, Yuko Nakagawa of JET, Professor Y. Nakano of Tokyo University, Professor M. Maeda and Professor M. Ubaura of Tohoku University and former CNCRP PD Engineer M Sikder made separate presentations in two technical sessions.

Source: https://www.observerbd.com/2015/04/25/85533.php

The Japanese government has taken an initiative to make vulnerable building of the country’s garments factories safe for the RMG workers through conducting retrofitting, a technology to make vulnerable building jolt resistant. ‘Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future,’ Japan International Cooperation. Agency senior representative Hiroyuki Tomita said in a seminar in a city hotel on Saturday. The project capacity development of natural disaster resistant techniques of construction and retrofitting for public buildings, implemented by public works department with technical support of JICA organised the seminar titled ‘development of safer building: overcoming the tragedy of Rana Plaza incident’. The JICA senior official said the Japanese experts had already started their work to do retrofit to two RMG factories initially and the JICA would implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country. In a presentation JICA assistant programme officer Kaniz Fatema said after tragic incident of Rana plaza, JICA took a programme titled ‘RMG sector safe environment project’ and created a Tk 100 crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers. In another presentation, JICA expert team leader Fumio Kaneko said there was a concept that retrofitting was very expensive and it was not viable for economy like Bangladesh. But it is totally wrong. Usually it only costs 10-30 per cent of new construction. PWD chief engineer Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan spoke as chief guest while CNCRP project director Md Ahsan Habib gave the welcome speech. JICA expert deputy team leader J Matsuo, Yuko Nakagawa of JET, professor Y Nakano of Tokyo University, professor M Maeda and professor M Ubaura of Tohoku University and former CNCRP PD M Sikder made separate presentations in two technical sessions.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114695/jica-to-provide-assistance-for-making-vulnerable-rmg-buildings-safe/#sthash.9hEk7lxd.dpuf

An earthquake that jolted the country just past Saturday noon hampered production in about 50 per cent readymade garment factories across the country, said industry people. The authorities in many factories had to suspend their operations as their workers, who rushed out of the factories for safety, did not come back in the consequence of the tremor aftershock, they said. A day after the second anniversary of shocking Rana Plaza building collapse that killed scores of garment workers the quake sent a shockwave among the factory employees. Following the earthquake, a rumour spread among the workers that many factory buildings had developed cracks and Rana Plaza-like disaster might occur, a factory owner told New Age in the evening. ‘So, many workers left their workplaces and did not return for the day,’ he said. In some areas in the city, factory owners declared holiday for the day following the earthquake. The factory owners were generous to declare the holiday as they did not want to take any risk of casualties, said another owner. Along with the garment workers, thousands of people were seen coming out of buildings and establishments hurriedly during the tremor in the capital, although the presence of people was thin in commercial buildings and other offices in the city as the day was a weekly holiday. More than hundred people including garment workers sustained injuries in the capital and on the outskirts of Dhaka while rushing out for quick exit when the tremor hit, according to different sources. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Sahidullah Azim told New Age that about half of the workers in about 50 per cent readymade garment factories did not come back to their workplaces after the lunch break as the quake created serious panic among them. ‘It is not abnormal that the factory workers will try to rush out of the buildings during earthquake and the loss of production for the sudden natural calamity is not considerable as safety should be the first priority,’ Azim said. He also said that no cracks developed in any factory buildings and no building tilted because of the earthquake. MA Rahim, director of Dulal and Brothers, said that following the earthquake they suspended work in their units and the workers were asked to join after the lunch break, but some of the employees did not come back. Most of the workers came back but they cannot resume work due to panic that a section of people spread rumour that tremor might hit again at 4:00pm, he said.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114699/tremor-panic-hits-rmg-production/#sthash.ucAM9TUc.dpuf