Law 200

Section: 06
Project Topic: Analysis on Rana Plaza Tragedy

Group Name: Corporate Pirates

Prepared For:
Sharaban Tahura Zaman

Lecturer

Department of Law

North South University

Prepared By:
Name ID
Anik Banik 1330320030
Shafiqul Alam 1420064030
Lulua mansura 1221186030
Md. Abir Khan 1420797030
Md Omar Faruk 1421477030

Shovon Anthoney Gomes 1230959630

S. M. Mostafizur Rahman 1210175030

Date of Submission: 27/04/2016

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 Rana Plaza
A Brief Analysis:
The collapse of the Rana Plaza building is, to date, the deadliest disaster in the history of the
garment industry worldwide.

Just before 9 a.m. on April 24, 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza came crashing down. The
building, situated under the jurisdiction of Savar Police Station on the east of Savar bus stand in
Savar, outside Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, contained five garment factories on its upper
floors. Some 3,639 workers toiled in five factories housed in the Rana Plaza building producing
clothing for some U.S., Canadian and European clothing labels and retailers. Eighty percent of
the workers were young women, 18, 19, 20 years of age. Their standard shift was 13 to 14
hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:30 p.m., toiling 90 to 100 hours a week with just two days off
a month. Young helpers earned 12 cents an hour, while junior operators took home 22 cents
an hour, $10.56 a week, and senior sewers received 24 cents an hour and $12.48 a week.

A government inspector had ordered the Rana Plazas evacuation the previous day after large
cracks had appeared in the walls. But on the morning of the collapse, the owner, Sohel Rana,
brought paid gang members to beat the women and men workers, hitting them with sticks to
force them to go into the factory. Factory managers also persuaded and cajoled workers to return,

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telling them it was safe. In some cases managers threatened them with dismissal if they did not
comply.

Shortly afterwards, Savar was affected by a power cut. Once the Rana Plazas electrical
generators were switched on, almost immediately the workers felt the eight-story building begin
to move, and heard a loud explosion as the building collapsed.

According to Odhikar statistics, 1131 amongst them lost their lives while around 2438 could be
rescued, however badly injured. Most of them were garments workers. The government claimed
that 1115 bodies have been recovered and 2438 people have been rescued with injuries. Till
19thJune 2013 after being rescued, 16 injured workers expired at various hospitals while under
treatment. In this incident five garment factories, a bank, ATM booths of the bank, a company,
a market and the parking space, all in the RanaPlaza, were destroyed. Right after the
collapse, members of the Bangladesh Army, Fire Service and Civil Defense, Police, BGB,
pedestrians and also members of various social welfare organizations had begun rescue
operations. They also helped the injured to various hospitals, delivered dead bodies to the
relatives, arranged for the burial of unidentified bodies and financially helped the affected. It
was learnt during the fact finding mission that in the morning of 23rd April 2013, three pillars of
the factory in front of the cutting section (middle of the building) had two inch deep cracks.

Aftermath Initiative: A Wake Up Call and Turning Point For the RMG Industries
in Bangladesh

In keeping with the commitments in the Compact, in full consultation with the Tripartite
Consultative Council (TCC) and taking into account the ILO recommendations, the
implementing Rules to the Bangladesh Labor Act (BLA) was drafted and adopted. The
Bangladesh Labor Act (amended) was passed in the Parliament on 15 July 2013 inter
alia incorporating core principles of the ILO Conventions and the conclusions and
recommendations of the ILO supervisory monitoring bodies. The provisions of fundamental
rights to freedom of association and the rights to collective bargaining have been strengthened in
the Act.

The Labor Rules was published in the official Gazette on 16 September 2015; and circulated
widely among all stakeholders to implement respective relevant provisions. The concerned
Directorate /Department, especially Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments
(DIFE) and Department of Labour (DoL), are since engaged in implementing the Rules.

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety, run on behalf of 175 retailers, most of which are based
in Europe, and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group of 26 North American
retailers, are conducting a series of inspections. Retailers should ensure that the outcomes are
properly monitored.

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Identification of Gross Violence of Labour Law under Labour Act:
The Rana Plaza collapse was the biggest disaster ever to hit Bangladeshs garment export
industry the second largest in the world after Chinasbut it came closely on the heels of
another major calamity. This incident sent reverberations across the globe and reignited the
debate on the role of corporate and consumer responsibility, and on the ethics of sweatshops.
Pressure groups, governments, and multinational corporations vowed to clean up the industry.
There comes a question of reassessment of working conditions in Bangladesh.

In the wake of the tragedy, retailers formed two groups to address safety issues in Bangladesh.
The first, Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, is led by H&M and backed by
Adidas, Benetton, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and others.

Walmart declined to sign on to the Accord and founded the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker
Safety, a voluntary organization whose members include Gap; Target; Hudsons Bay Company,
whose brands include Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor; and VF Corporation, whose brands
include North Face, Timberland, Vans and Wrangler.

Disrespecting Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 (Amended 2013): Rana Plaza

Disaster Case

The Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 consolidated 25 other laws (and repealed them) relating to
employment of workers, relations between workers and employers, determination of minimum
rates of wages, payment of wages, compensation for injuries to workers during working hours,
formation of trade unions, raising and settlement of industrial disputes, health, safety, welfare
and working conditions and environment of workers and apprenticeship.

1. Employment Contract and Condition of Employment and Service

As mentioned in Chapter II of the Labour Act, every establishment wishes to have its own
Employment Policy/Service Rules must obtain approval from the Chief Inspector of Labour.
Under the Labour Act Section 5, there must be an appointment letter and an identity card
mentioning certain information such as salary, other financial benefits, applicable rules etc. But it
is unfortunate that, most of the companies do not follow this procedure. When any unwanted
incident occurred, they even do not recognize their own workers in this regard. This became an
obvious situation in case of Rana Plaza disaster as well. There is no record of employees in the
service book. So after the incident, it became quite tough to identify the workers and provide
them the compensations.

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Many of its supplier factories continue to employ workers on fixed duration contracts. Workers
also reported having production targets that caused them to skip breaks.

In Bangladesh there is a statistics that 50% of the employees had been fired without notice.
About 60% was dismissed without receiving their due wages and benefits.

Two festival bonuses: The Rules makes it mandatory that a labour, who continuously works for
a year, must receive two festival bonuses in every year. Under section 264, Provident Fund is
elaborated.New additions includes provisions related to selection of nominee, management of
the fund, activities of the trust for managing provident fund.

2. Denial of Paid Maternity Leave

According to the Bangladesh Labor Actsection 45 and 46, women are entitled to 16 weeks
maternity benefit, at least eight weeks of which should be taken after the birth, so long as they
have worked for the employer for at least six months prior to the delivery date and they do not
already have two children. In cases where they already have two children, the women are entitled
to unpaid leave only. Those entitled to paid leave should be paid the average wage they received
over the preceding three months, and they should receive it for 16 weeks. But these are not
followed in the factories operating in Rana Plaza.

3. Health and Hygiene Issues: Unsanitary Conditions

Under this Act, according to section 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55 in Chapter V, the floor should be
clean of dirt and refuge on a daily basis, adequate ventilation should be arranged and take
measures to ensure the reasonable conditions of comfort in maintaining the temperature. Refer to
section 56, the building should not be overcrowded. But Rana Plaza was overcrowded and the
eight storied building had permission of up to five storied.

4. Safety Measures Not Checked

Refer to section 61 and 62 in chapter VI, Safety of buildings and machinery and precaution as
to fire should be ensured on a top priority basis. According to section 62 (3), the workers
employed in any place above the ground floor, or explosive or highly inflammable materials are
used, or stored, effective measures shall be taken to ensure that all workers may be familiar with
the means of escape in case of fire and are adequately trained in the routine work to be followed
in such cases.

Moreover in section 62.3 (a), it is mentioned that while work is going on, no exit of a room shall
be kept locked or fastened and no exit shall be hindered or no barrier shall be put on
the way.

In section 68, there is a provision to arrange mock fire-fighting in every six months for at least
50 workers factory. In section 72, all floors, stairs, passages shall be of sound construction and
properly maintained.

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But it was clearly seen, almost all of these safety issues are not checked in case of Rana Plaza.
Though the building got collapsed, but after probing it was found that, there was no such
measure in addressing these vital issues. Most importantly, the section 72 was not followed
according to the RAJUK instructions.

5. Violating the Special Provisions In Case of Health, Hygiene and Safety

Refer to Section 86 in chapter VIIProviding information about dangerous building and

machinery (1)Where any worker of an establishment finds that any building or machinery
thereof,which is ordinarily used by the workers, is in such a dangerous condition that it islikely
to cause bodily injury to any worker at any time, he shall immediately inform
the employer of it in writing.

As the local inspectors had warned the Rana Plaza authority not to continue their operation in the
buildings one week before as it was vulnerable to any serious disaster, but they didnt pay any
heed to them.

6. Working Hour and Leave Condition Violation

Refer tosection 100 in chapter IX,Daily working hours will not be more than 8 (eight) hours
and it is extended up to 10 hours subject to the provisions of section 108 of extra-allowance for
overtime. Moreover the weekly working hours should not exceed 60 hours and on the average 56
(fifty-six) hours per week in a year. But ordinarily it should not be more than 48 (forty-eight)
hours in aweek.The wages of a worker shall bepaid before the expiry of the seventh working day
following the last day of the wageperiod under section 123. Every worker shall be allowed in a
calendar year11 (eleven) days of festival holiday with wages according to section 118.

But these rules are violated in case of Rana Plaza. After the disaster, workers had alleged that the
authority obliged them to work in an inhuman environment.

Refer to section 150 in Chapter XII, it is the liability of the employers to provide compensation
in any type of injury caused by accident. But for the case of Rana Plaza, the contractual
companies were not liable to pay the compensation, and then the government came to action to
raise the fund from the retailers.

7. Challenges in Establishing Trade Union: Still Not Followed in Many Factories as

Well as Then Rana Plaza

Refer to 176 (a), all workers shall, without distinction whatsoever, have the right toform trade
union primarily for the purpose of regulating the relationsbetween workers and employers, or
between workers and workersand, subject to the constitution of the union concerned, to join
tradeunion of their own choice It is to be registered to the Registrar ofthe Trade Union of the
concerned area according to section 177. 3(1).

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So trade unions are legal in Bangladesh but, workers seeking to form unions face an often
daunting environmentincluding at times violent retaliation, termination of employment, and
other violations as well as arbitrary barriers to registration, and harassment and retaliation
once a union is established.

First, many raised concerns about pay and benefits, including not being paid the minimum wage,
late payment of wages and bonuses, denial of overtime payments, and denial of maternity and
sick leave. Second, the workers complained about how they were treated by factory supervisors
and managers, and the pressure they were put under to complete work quotas which included
resorting to forced overtime, physical abuse, and verbal abuse that sometimes was of a sexual
nature. Third, workers complained about unsanitary conditions in the workplace, particularly
drinking water of such poor quality that many refused to drink it. According to a major factory
owner in Bangladesh, these complaints are common. So as well for Rana Plaza.

Refer to section 202. The registered trade union can be worked as a collective bargaining agent
for that establishment. Over two hundred Workers Welfare Associations (WWAs) have been
registered with the rights to collective bargaining.

If workers at Rana Plaza had more of a voice, it is entirely possible that the circumstances that
led to the thousands of deaths and injuries could have been prevented. None of the five factories
operating in Rana Plaza had a trade union, and so workers were powerless to resist their
managers who ordered, threatened, and cajoled them to enter the doomed building a day after
large cracks had appeared in it.

Most trade union leaders said that freedom of association and collective bargaining are part of
company codes of conduct but in their experience audits and inspections conducted by company
agents prior to the Rana Plaza collapse often overlooked these issues or addressed them only
superficially.

So garment workers in Bangladesh still face daunting challenges to unionization, and remain at
risk of interference and threats.

8. Various Forms of Abuses and Mal-practices

Specific violations documented here include physical abuse as well as verbal abuse which is
sometimes of a sexual nature, forced overtime, failure to pay wages and bonuses on time or in
full, pressures on workers not to use the toilet, and provision of dirty drinking water.

If workers are not able to fulfill the production target, authorities will deduct from workers
salaries. They also deduct employees overtime or show less attendance than is true.

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Identification of Implementation Gap:
Bangladesh is one of the cheapest places in the world to make clothes, and its plentiful supply of
inexpensive labor has made it second only to China in global apparel exports. The garment
industry employs nearly 5 million people. Since rural migrants began pouring into the city in the
early 1990s seeking work in the burgeoning industry, the population of Dhaka and the industrial
zones that encircle it has grown threefold. With nearly a third of the countrys population living
below the national poverty line, the $23 billion ready-made garments sector (which accounts for
more than 80 percent of the countrys exports and roughly 15 percent of the GDP) is widely seen
as an economic lifeline for the nation.

But the Rana Plaza incident shook the base of our RMG sector. There were many broken system
which caused this disaster to be happened. Such as:

1. Audit failure
As an example of how superficial supplier audits can be, Mangos official response to the Rana
Plaza disaster stated that It would have been impossible to detect the structural defects of the
collapsed building, since Mango would not have been able to ascertain that the owners of said
building had built three storeys more than is permitted. Any audit that cannot check such basic
information about factory construction has little if any hope of ensuring workers safety.

Yet corporate auditing schemes arent just undermined by their lack of rigor, it is now widely
acknowledged that suppliers can all too easily falsify the results.

It is common practice for factory owners to keep two or even three sets of records on workers
pay and hours to meet the demands of different auditors; in fact the staffs of human resource
department in many garment factories are now primarily concerned with meeting the needs of
auditors rather than dealing with workforce issues.

These flaws are compounded by audit companies lack of independence and transparency.
Suppliers usually have to pay for and choose the auditors; unsurprisingly this leads to suppliers
preferring cheap auditors who can be relied upon to give their factory a clean bill of health. The
results of these audits are then only shared with the factory and buyers, neither of which are
required to act on the findings or share them with workers or local authorities, meaning that audit
results can never be verified.

Ultimately audits are window dressing, presenting a show of tackling the most visible and
superficial issues, while leaving the underlying causes of workers right violations untouched.

2. Sub-poverty wages

Garment workers around the world also face appallingly low wages in Bangladesh the starting
wage is just 37 a month. This is well below a living wage that could allow them to live a life of

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basic dignity, estimated to be as much as 200 a month in 2013. Nearly 80% of women garment
workers in Bangladesh work until 8pm or 10pm, after starting at 8am, in order to earn enough to
provide for their families. These exploitative conditions are one of the main reasons why
garment workers couldnt afford to risk their managers threats of docked pay and returned to
work before the Rana Plaza collapsed.

3. Unfair Labor Practices

Section 195 of the Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006 (amended 2013) outlaws numerous unfair labor
practices. For example, no employer shall dismiss, discharge, remove from employment, or
threaten to dismiss, discharge, or remove from employment a worker, or injure or threaten to
injure him in respect of his employment by reason that the worker is or proposes to become, or
seeks to persuade any other person to become, a member or officer of a trade union. Bangladesh
has also ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of
association and collective bargaining, and is required to protect the rights contained in them.

4. Abusive conditions

Workers in factories told that many abuses and violations are simply not noticed, or are ignored,
by the inspections carried out by or on behalf of buyers. Most trade union leaders said that
freedom of association and collective bargaining are part of company codes of conduct but in
their experience audits and inspections conducted by company agents prior to the Rana Plaza
collapse often overlooked these issues or addressed them only superficially.

5. Dangerous factory facility

Poorly constructed buildings have long been a problem in Bangladesh. In 2005, at least 64
workers at Spectrum Garments were killed in a building collapse. Alonzo Suson, who runs an
A.F.L.-C.I.O. training center in Dhaka known as the Solidarity Center, said Rana Plazas
accident illustrated the repeated failure of government inspectors to ensure that safety standards
and building codes are met.

6. Union Busting

Bangladesh authorities have failed to initiate appropriate legal action against union-busting
factories. In some cases, police have refused to record criminal complaints and failed to initiate
impartial investigations. There are no procedures governing investigation of union-busting and
other unfair labor practices by labor authorities.

In a recent example, The 2012 murder of Aminul Islam of the Bangladesh Center for Workers
Solidarity, a nongovernmental organization that protects workers rights, has yet to be properly
investigated.

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Key findings
Improper building structure:

The building structure of rana plaza was defected. Engineers said that this building was
insecure.The building contained clothing factories, a bank, apartments, and several shops. The
shops and the bank on the lower floors immediately closed after cracks were discovered in the
building. The building's owners ignored warnings to avoid using the building after cracks had
appeared the day before. Garment workers were ordered to return the following day, and the
building collapsed during the morning rush-hour.

Casualties:

Rana plaza collapse is the biggest tragedy of garments sector. Thousands of people lost their live.
The search for the dead ended on 13 may 2013 with a death toll of 1129. Approximately 2500
injured people were rescued from the building alive. It is considered the deadliest garments
factory accident in history, as well as the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human
history.

Labour law violation:

Section 100 referred that no adult worker shall ordinarily be required or allowed to work in an
establishment for more than eight hours in any day. An adult worker may work in an
establishment not exceeding ten hours in any day. But rana plaza factories workers standard shift
was 13 to 14 hours, from 8.00 am to 9.00 or 10.30 pm

Under section 102, total hours of work of an adult worker shall not exceed 60 hours in any week
and on the average 56 hours per week in any year. But workers of rana plaza worked 90 to 100
hours per week.

They also deprived from different types of leaves. They have just two days off in a weak.

Impact on garments sectors:

Our garments sector earns the lion share of remittance and millions of people are engaged with
this sector. The Rana plaza issue defames our garments sector a lot. We are recognized
worldwide to violate labor law. Foreign companies are not ready to deal with us. Many foreign
companies decided to get back from Bangladesh. This is a big threat of our garments sector as
well as our economy.

The tragedy led to a decision in Washington by President Obama to suspend trade preferences to
Bangladesh under the Generalized System of Preferences, known as GSP. An action plan charts
out steps Bangladesh can take to requalify for GSP.

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Worldwide criticism:

Nick clegg, then UK Deputy PM and leader of the Liberal Democrats said: "... there's more we
could do to talk about what goes on behind the scenes and this terrible catastrophe might well
prompt people to think again.

Michael connarty, UK's Falkirk East MP, is calling on the UK Government to push through new
legislation to end modern day slavery by forcing major high street companies in the UK to audit
their supply chain. The framework requests that those companies make vigorous checks to
ensure slave labour is not used in third world countries and the UK to produce their goods.

Karel de gucht, current European commissioner for trade warned that retailers and the
Bangladeshi government could face action from the EU if nothing is done to improve the
conditions of workers adding that shoppers should also consider where they are spending their
money.

Recommendations
The Bangladeshi government had pledged to improve union representation as well as its factory
inspection regime, as it tries to reassure international retailers about the safety of an industry
highly important to its economy.

Improvement in work conditions will not necessarily have a detrimental effect on the economy
of Bangladesh. Consumers seem willing to pay extra for ethically sourced apparel and
multinationals can benefit from having a just image. This helps to offset the increased costs in
production. Policy makers and multinationals can also make improvements to work conditions
without having a detrimental effect on employment in Bangladesh. Governments and western
firms can increase labor demand through other policy initiatives, and some western nations can
increase trade with Bangladesh by reducing tariffs and import quotas. This can maintain, or even
increase, employment. It is also contentious to claim that sweatshops are natural and that it
should be left to a market-led process to provide economic development. Throughout history,
there have been numerous examples where government intervention has combined with market
forces to encourage growth and development.

Some key recommendations are:

The Bangladesh government should carry out effective and impartial investigations into
all workers allegations of mistreatment, including beatings, threats, and other abuses,
and prosecutes those responsible.

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 A radical shift away from voluntary self-regulation to binding labor-management
agreements.
The Bangladesh government should revise the labor law to ensure it is in line with
international labor standards. Amendments made to date fall short of International Labour
Organizations conventions ratified by Bangladesh, including Convention No. 87 on
freedom of association and Convention No. 98 on the right to organize and bargain
collectively.
The attention to building safety might prevent another fatal factory collapse, but little has
been done to address the unfair labor practices that are endemic to the industry. The
Government must pay their concern in it.
Companies sourcing from Bangladesh factories should institute regular factory
inspections to ensure that factories comply with companies codes of conduct and the
Bangladesh Labor Law.
Not just inspections industry-wide program of renovations and retro-fitting to make
unsafe structures safe.
Companies should work in consultation with unions and labor rights lawyers to ensure
that pricing and sourcing contracts adequately reflect and incorporate the cost of labor,
health, and safety compliance. Such contracts should include the cost of the minimum
wage, overtime payments, and all legal benefits.
Campaign for ethically produced goods and the buyers must accept that safe factories
cost more.

The Rana Plaza tragedy spurred the government of Bangladesh, workers, factory owners,
associations, international buyers, international organizations, and the United States and
European Union (EU) to mount public-private partnerships suited to addressing the scale of
Bangladeshs garment industry challenge. Bangladesh must move fast to preserve the garment
sectors successes. It may seem strange to focus on this industrys successes when recalling such
a tragedy. Yet the garment industry has been signally important to Bangladeshs economic well-
being and the Government must try everything possible to save this industry.

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References
http://www.globallabourrights.org/campaigns/factory-collapse-in-bangladesh

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/21/bangladesh-garment-workers-union-rights-bleak

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/21/bangladesh-garment-factories-safety-
alliance-rana-plaza-report

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_grind/2016/12/bangladesh_s_apparel_factories_
still_have_appalling_worker_conditions.html

https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/04/22/whoever-raises-their-head-suffers-most/workers-
rights-bangladeshs-garment

https://www.bangladeshtradeportal.gov.bd/?r=site/display&id=457

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/rana-plaza-collapse-compensation-fund-
has-6m-shortfall-two-years-on

http://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/case-studies/bangladesh-factory-collapse-case-intervention-
policy-change

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