DHAKA: Global trade unions IndustriALL and UNI and labour rights network Clean Clothes Campaign launched a new effort on Thursday to push Western brands to pay into a compensation fund for victims of the Rana Plaza collapse that killed more than 1,100 people.

In a joint statement they said that a fund set up for the over 2,000 people injured and the families of the dead had raised only a third of its target of $40 million so far.

Only half of the 29 brands that sourced goods from factories in the Rana Plaza complex contributed to the fund run by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
 
Jyrki Raina of IndustriALL said "The workers who survived this catastrophe and the families of those who did not are in desperate need. The last year has seen medical expenses, lack of income and the horrors of that day relived.”

Some of the brands supplied from the Rana Plaza complex say they will not contribute as their production was outsourced to the factory without their knowledge, or ended some time ago, while others prefer to pursue their own compensation plans.

Ineke Zeldenrust of Clean Clothes Campaign said the 29 brands have combined profits of more than $22 billion a year.

"They are being asked to contribute less than 0.2 percent of these profits to go some way towards compensating the people their profits are built on," she said.

Clothes retailer Primark said it would pay an 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.

Other brands to contribute include Canada`s Loblaw, Britain`s Bon Marche and Premier Clothing, Mascot of Denmark and Spanish chains El Corte Ingles, Mango and Zara-owner Inditex.

BDST: 2133 HRS, APR 10, 2014