28 April is International Workers Memorial Day – an occasion to remember those who have tragically lost their lives because of un-safe working conditions. All over the world workers and their representatives conduct events, demonstrations, vigils and a whole host of other activities to “remember the dead and fight for the living”.

This year’s theme for International Workers Memorial Day is “removing exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace". To mark the occasion, Linda Mead, Commitment for Life programme co-ordinator, remembers those who lost their lives in the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh, one of Commitment for Life’s partner countries:

“It is two years since the collapse of Rana Plaza, an eight story garment factory building in Savar, Bangladesh. It was reportedly the biggest disaster in the garment industry history – killing 1,134 people and injuring approximately 2,400. Yet the Rana Plaza Donor’s Trust Fund, set up by the International Labour Organisation to fund compensation payments to the victims of the disaster and the dependents of the workers killed or maimed, still remains well below its target. Many of those reluctant to offer compensation are international household names, with some based in the UK.

“The collapse followed a series of disasters brought about by unsafe working conditions in the same district that killed hundreds of people. Savar, just outside of Dhaka, has seen significant growth in garment factories in recent times with factories being built on swamp land and without proper building regulations in place.

“UNI Global Union, IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign (of which ‘Labour Behind the Label’ is the UK part) are negotiating on behalf of the victims and continuing their campaign to deliver full and fair compensation to each of the over 5,000 individuals with eligible claims. A ‘38 degrees’ social media campaign last year to get a British clothing company to pay compensation was deemed successful.

“‘Labour Behind the Label’, have also been calling on the stakeholders to sign the 'Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement'. The Accord is an independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions designed to work towards a safe and healthy Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garment Industry, with the intention to create working environments, where unsafe working conditions that have caused deaths and illness, would come to end. The Clean Clothes Campaign, together with local and global unions and labour rights organisations, have developed this sector-wide program that includes independent building inspections, worker rights training, public disclosure and a long-overdue review of safety standards. This transparent and practical agreement is unique in that it is supported by all key labour stakeholders in Bangladesh and internationally.

“The Accord now has more than 200 brands signed up and has to date completed nearly 1,500 factory inspections and identified many thousands of safety issues to be remedied. However, there is still a long way to go – the compensation fund is still missing US$6 million out of the targeted US$30 million needed to compensate the victims and not a single factory can yet be called 100 per cent safe.

“On this day, let us make sure we remember and pray for the families who are still finding life hard, grieving a family member killed going about their daily work, or struggling to survive without an income. It is not only the loss of the person, but of their daily wage that was so critical for many families of the victims of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh.

“Everyone should feel safe in their working environment. We can use our voices to campaign to make sure that all workers are as safe as they can be, so such tragedies are less likely to happen in the future.”

For more information on the current state of the compensation visit www.labourbehindthelabel.org and you can find out more about Commitment for Life's work in Banglaedsh here.

Image: "Rana Plaza Site" by NYU Stern BHR © https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/