KARACHI: Five years ago, the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed, where thousands of workers at their sewing machines in the five factories that the building housed were buried in the collapsed structure ? 1,134 of them died, thousands more were injured.
“On this day our thoughts are with the families who lost loved ones five years ago and with the survivors that have to live with the memories of that dreadful tragedy,” a joint statement issued here on Tuesday stated.
This day has become a harrowing symbol of workplace deaths in the garment industry in general. Clean Clothes Campaign and its Pakistani partners on this day also express solidarity with the families of the many workers that died and were injured in factory incidents ? fires, explosions, collapses ? since 2013.
Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), National Trade Union Federation and Labour Education Foundation are partners of Clean Clothes Campaign in Pakistan
As none of these incidents had the scale of the Rana Plaza collapse, their fate has not received the same amount of international attention and outcry. Already for the workers in the Rana Plaza building, despite the international spotlight they were in, it took considerable campaigning and international pressure on garment brands for a compensation scheme to be established. These workers in small-scale incidents have no access to such international pressure and campaigning. That means that while the workers of Rana Plaza already had to wait for two years to receive compensation, most of these workers are still waiting ? some for almost five years.
Clean Clothes Campaign and its Pakistani partners urge the government of Bangladesh, with the support of the ILO and brands sourcing from Bangladesh, to do justice to all workers affected by workplace incidents through the establishment of a national employment injury insurance system according to international standards in Bangladesh and a bridging solution meant to cover those affected by past incidents.
Above all, new factory tragedies need to be prevented. We would like to reiterate that there is only one credible way for garment brands to ensure that the workers in their supply chain can work in safe factories: by signing the 2018 Transition Accord.
Clean Clothes Campaign and its Pakistani partners urges all apparel and textile companies sourcing from Bangladesh to join the ranks of the Accord and to leave behind non-binding alternatives without worker participation. We call upon those brands that already signed the 2018 Accord, to extend its protection to more workers in their supply chain, by adding their factories for home textile and knit and fabric accessories to the monitoring activities of the Accord.
On this day, we once more reiterate that a tragedy like the Rana Plaza collapse must never be allowed to happen again. All involved must take responsibility to create and maintain the structures able to prevent it.