Fashion brands under pressure again over Bangladesh
British fashion brands linked to factories in Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza block tonight face further pressure to compensate victims, in response to reports that a 13-year-old girl has gone to work in a garment factory as her injured mother cannot walk.
The charity War on Want called on four UK high street companies which acknowledged recent orders or production with factories in Rana Plaza - Mango, Benetton, Bonmarché and Matalan - to secure victims’ future by providing full compensation without further delay, as families hit by the tragedy struggle to survive.
The BBC Radio 4 documentary What Price Cheap Clothes?, launched this evening, claimed that among children working illegally in Bangladeshi garment factories are some who have been forced to seek work because their parents were hurt or killed in the Rana Plaza tragedy.
One 13-year-old, whom the programme makers call Ruma, said she gave up school and got a job in a factory as a seamstress, because her mother was hurt in the building collapse, and is now unable to walk
“My mother is very sick, so I had no option,” Ruma said.
The programme, File on 4, claimed the family relied on the £37 (4,558 taka) she earns each month.
What Price Cheap Clothes? also featured others battling to make ends meet after the Rana Plaza disaster, as well as Amirul Haque Amin, the president of the National Garment Workers’ Federation, War on Want’s Bangladeshi partner.
It aired nearly five months on since over 1,100 people were killed and thousands more injured in the tragedy, with most of the victims female garment workers.
Murray Worthy, sweatshops campaigner at War on Want said: “These latest revelations graphically demonstrate the human impacts of high street brands and retailers’ failure to compensate the victims of this horrific tragedy.
“No one should have to send their children to work to feed the family, especially not people who have already been victims to an entirely avoidable disaster.
“Brands and retailers should have acted to ensure their workers’ safety. Now they must provide compensation to ensure they do not face a lifetime of destitution.”
The charity’s demand comes five days after brands and retailers failed to agree to provide compensation at an international summit with trade unions, hosted by the International Labour Organisation in the Swiss city Geneva.
Despite pressure from campaigners, 20 companies that had been invited failed to attend negotiations, including Mango, Benetton and Walmart.
None of the brands agreed to the model for calculating compensation presented by the IndustriaALL Global Union, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Workers’ Rights Consortium, used in previous Bangladeshi factory disasters.
· People can hear File on 4’s repeat at 5.00 pm on Sunday (22 September).
· Further details of last week’s compensation summit:
http://www.industriall-union.org/bangladesh-workers-must-continue-to-wait-for-full-compensation
· The meeting in Geneva also failed to secure agreement from brands and retailers for the victims of the Tazreen factory fire. Walmart, Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Disney featured among 12 brands which did not participate in separate Geneva talks over compensation for victims of a fire last November at the Bangladeshi garment factory Tazreen Fashion. The blaze at the nine-storey factory killed 117 workers – including 12 who jumped from windows to escape the flames - and injured another 200 staff. War on Want is backing demands for Tazreen bereaved families and injured workers to receive full compensation.
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