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Matalan criticised over refusal to pay into Rana Plaza compensation fund

Budget fashion retailer faces social media campaign over response to deadly collapse of Bangladeshi factory as UN deadline approaches

The Rana Plaza Factory collapse site in Bangladesh
The Rana Plaza Factory collapse site in Bangladesh Credit: Photo: Taslima Akhter

Matalan, the budget fashion retailer, will this week be targeted by campaigners who aim to shame it into paying £3m into a UN-run compensation fund for victims the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh.

Matalan is the only major British customer of the factory not to have contributed to the fund, leaving it short of the $20m (£11.8m) required by Thursday to make a full first round of payments.

The Rana Plaza building collapsed in April 2013, killing 1,130 and injuring more than 2,500. Its factories made garments for several major western brands and the tragedy prompted an international outcry over the conditions endured by the Bangladeshi workers to meet demand for budget fashion.

The International Labour Organisation, an agency of the UN, is aiming to raise $40m to compensate victims left with disabilities and families that have lost breadwinners. Walmart, the owner of Asda, is backing the plan and Primark has pledged $8m.

Matalan is instead giving undisclosed level of financial support to BRAC, an NGO focused on rehabilitation and retraining for survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster.

David Babbs, executive director of 38 Degrees, a campaigning organisation that will this week target Matalan via social media, said: “If Primark can pay, why can’t Matalan?

“Matalan may have made peppercorn donations to other charities, but that’s no substitute for the proper compensation it owes to the survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster.”

Matalan argued yesterday that it had only used Rana Plaza on a short pilot basis. The final order was delivered three weeks before the building collapsed and all proceeds from the clothes made will go to BRAC, it added.

A spokesman said: “In order to come to this decision we have undertaken a significant level of due diligence and have looked to avoid public debates of where the right place to put our support should be.”