ILO aid for Rana Plaza victims soon

The International Labour Organisation will start providing financial assistance to Rana Plaza victims from the workers’ welfare fund from this month.

Srinivas Reddy, Director at the ILO Office in Dhaka, made the announcement at a BGMEA press briefing on “Post Rana Plaza Initiatives and Current Scenario of the RMG Sector” at Hotel Westin on Thursday.

He said British clothing retailer Primark paid out compensation after the building collapsed last year and the affected workers have already received some of that money.

“The rest will be given within April 24,” said Reddy.

Rana Plaza, an eight-storey commercial building with several garment factories, collapsed on Apr 24, killing 1,131 people and maiming numerous others, mostly garment workers.

The working environments at Bangladeshi garment factories shown some signs of improvement since the Rana Plaza incident, he said.

“Representatives of ILO, ACORD and Alliance have visited 600 factories so far. Most of them have good standards.”

He said workers in most of these factories have formed trade unions.

“The situation will gradually improve.”

Canadian High Commissioner Heather Cruden agreed. She said the apparel sector showed improvement a year after the fall of Rana Plaza.

She said workers now had better environments due to the internationally accepted measures that were put in place following the incident.

Cruden hoped that the measures will continue to provide safety to garment workers.