Primark to pay $10m more to Rana Plaza victims

British clothes retailer Primark will pay a further $ 10 million in compensation to victims of the collapse of a Bangladesh factory in Savar last year that killed about 1230 people. The disaster has galvanised most of the clothing industry's big names to work together to improve safety standards but many brands have shunned a fund that is trying to raise $ 40 million for the over 2,000 people injured and the families of the dead. Campaigners are demanding that 27 brands linked to five ready-made garment (RMG) factories at the nine-storey ‘Rana Plaza’ complex in Savar should contribute to the fund run by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the first anniversary of the April 24 collapse. Primark has already paid $ 2 million in short-term financial support and food distribution. It said it would pay out the extra $ 10 million in long-term compensation – $9 million directly to the 580 workers of its supplier in Rana Plaza or their dependants, and another $ 1 million to the fund. It said cash payments to the workers of its supplier, New Wave Bottoms, would begin this week, with the amount to be paid based on estimates of lost earnings for the dependants of those killed and on the level of disability for those injured, according to a news agency.