The coordination committee started Monday the listing of compensation claims, paving the way for providing such benefits to the victims and their families of Rana Plaza building collapse
Earlier, the multi-stakeholders' coordination committee, which was formed with international and Bangladeshi representatives from government, industry and the trade unions to deal with the compensation issues, is assigned to complete the payment of compensation under a Trust Fund.
"We just listed Monday 18 claims from the victims and their families," Roy Ramesh Chandra, secretary general of the IndustriAll Bangladesh Council told the FE.
About 50 claims would be processed daily while the number of workers including injured, dead and missing is 3400, he said adding that on March 28, the Primark will pay Tk 50,000 to each of the New Wave Bottoms (NWB) workers from where it sourced apparel products.
The rest will get the same amount on April 15, he added.
In a separate statement, Clean Clothes Campaign said as the settlement of claims starts campaigners are strengthening their call for brands buying from factories located in the devastated building, including Matalan, Benetton and Walmart, to pay millions of dollars in compensation into the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, set up to finance these payments.
The Trust Fund, which has been set up by the International Labour Organization has been open for contributions since February. The Fund needs to reach a final target of $40million in order to pay full compensation to all workers and their families.
The experts involved in designing the process estimated that 25 per cent of the final target would be needed to make the first round of payments to all workers. The coordination committee now believes that sufficient funds are available and launched processing of the claims on Monday, one month before the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster.
Every family will receive a minimum of Tk 50,000 by April 24 (around $2 million in total) as an advance payment towards their claim. Those workers whose claims can be fully processed by April 24 will also receive their first full installment, which will constitute 20 per cent of their total claim, the statement added.
"The only barrier now in payment of compensation to the victims of the garment industry's worst ever disaster is the refusal of many brands, including Italian fashion brand Benetton the, UK high street brand Matalan and retail giant Walmart to make significant contributions to the Fund," it said.
Ten brands have already confirmed donations to the Fund, including Mango, Inditex and C&A.
Timescale for the payments by Primark will be coordinated to ensure that all families are treated fairly and equitably. Primark has made an initial contribution of $1 million to the Trust Fund while $9.0 million will be directly paid to the NWB workers.
However, the final target of $40 million is hard to achieve and more contributions are urgently needed if the Fund is to cover all the claims.
Emma Harbour of the Clean Clothes Campaign states: "These brands already failed these workers once by failing to ensure the factories they were using met national and international standards for safety. Almost a year later and they are failing them again - refusing to contribute what is needed to help these families to start rebuilding their lives".
She adds: "For the first time ever we have a system in place for making sure payments get directly to those families that deserve them. Benetton has no excuse for not paying in and can easily afford a USD 5 million contribution to the fund. Any less would be an insult to all those who were killed and injured."
"There is no time to wait - we have one month to find $40 million. We urge Benetton to make this contribution immediately and to confirm publicly that it has done so", she added.
