THE nation observes three years of the Rana Plaza tragedy Sunday when most victims are yet to get their compensation while the trial of the accused persons still hangs in the balance. In the incident, the largest industrial disaster in our time, over 1,135 garment workers were killed 2,500 injured mainly for neglect of the factory owners because of faulty factory buildings where safety measures were almost absent. News reports in national dailies blamed government’s reluctance to press the cases ahead as most of the accuseds in the case are related to ruling party, in addition to government employees. The fear of not getting justice has become stronger with the trial procedure delayed while this delay reflects the prevailing culture of impunity and how difficult it is to bring wealthy and politically influential people to justice.There is no doubt that the garment industry and the nation as a whole were in utter shock with the scale of the accident where the government rescue preparedness was almost zero. It was unwise that the government had declined offer of some friendly countries of sending rescue teams, but at the end it had to rely on untrained local amateur rescuers who deployed traditional tolls to look for victims bloc by bloc and brick by brick. It continued for more than two weeks when causalities increased both in terms of dead and injured. Many lost limbs and many victims remained missing till today. When the workers remained largely in abeyance the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has suggested five issues as very important at this stage. These include punishment of the responsible persons, re-employment of victims, free treatment and compensation for disabled and finding out the missing workers. Meanwhile, we believe that trial of the accused must start without delay. It remained largely blocked by powerful garment industry lobby and Labour Ministry’s refusal to give permission for inclusion of three of its employees in the charge sheet. The CID has however accused 42 individuals, including the building owner in the charge-sheets. In our view justice must be meted out to the victims without delay – no matter how powerful the garment industry lobby is. They can’t be above law. Workers compensation and rehabilitation also can’t be delayed. There is no doubt, the garment industry has achieved significant transition after the tragedy with improvement in working conditions in factories including safety against fire at workplace. Major buyers signed ‘sustainability compact agreement’ with the government and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA) to improve compliance standard at factories. International Labour Organization (ILO) is lending support in the process when several multilateral agencies are funding the renovation of factories. These are good steps but we can’t ignore justice to the workers any more.
