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<\/a>No one has ever been punished for Bangladesh Factory Disasters<\/p><\/div>\n
A Lawful Remedy to Death in Factories? Translation of article published in ASK Spring Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n On the 24th April 2013, with an abrupt tremor and piles of dust, the eight storey commercial building in Savar, Rana Plaza, collapsed. Approximately 2,238 injured people were rescued alive. The search for the dead ended on the 13th May with the death toll of 1,127, as declared by the government.\u00a0 The Savar branch of BRAC Bank which was situated on the ground floor of Rana Plaza, had immediately closed and sent its staff home after cracks were discovered in the building.<\/p>\n Five garment factories decided to ignore the warnings given the day before, workers were forced to work despite the fear of cracks. Five months earlier, 112 workers were burned to death at the\u00a0\u00a0 Tazreen Fashion Factory in Nishchintapur, Ashulia on 24 Nov 2012, which reminded us of the 64 workers who were killed in the collapse of Spectrum Garments, Savar, in 2005.<\/p>\n The Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies researchers found that in Bangladesh the factory death toll spanning\u00a0 all sectors, has resulted in 6,406 deaths in the last twelve years.\u00a0 Article 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, guarantees an undisputed right to life. Moreover, the 2006 Labour Law prescribes\u00a0 a safe and proper workplace. Questions arise why the laws are not implemented.<\/p>\n Spectrum Factory Fire | 11 April 2005<\/strong> KTS Textiles | 23 Feb 2006<\/strong> ASK and BLAST filed a writ petition. The High Court ordered an enquiry and issued a show-cause notice to the ones responsible to define the cause and to state the preventive measures taken later. Moreover, the court claimed to ascertain the compensations given to the victims. In 2010, the petitioner sent them a notice on their disgracing the High Court, as for the last four years, the KTS party had paid no heed to the writ. Overall, the case faced no advancement from then.<\/span><\/p>\n Tazreen Fashions Ltd Factory Fire 24th November 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n Police filed a litigation blaming outside imposters who intentionally set the fire.<\/span> Observers guessed that the police omitted these facts so the owner was not held responsible as the litigation had no hint of the owners name.\u00a0 The Home Ministry and the Ministry of Labour categorically recommended to file a case for this incident but so far no action has been taken. Moreover, the Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir produced a number of arguments not to arrest the owner of Tazreen Fashion’s, Mr. Delowar Hossain.\u00a0 On this issue, ASK, in collaboration with BLAST, BRAC and Nijera Kori had put a writ petition at the High Court and the Court issued a rule.<\/p>\n To be noted that the Court, then, issued an order to the Tazreen Garments Ltd and Tuba Group Managing Director to submit to the steps taken to compensate the victims to the court. The Court summoned the owner on the 13th May 2013, as they he had not replied earlier. The Tazreen Fashions Ltd owner presented a victim list the same day.\u00a0 He also submitted a report on how compensations were being paid. Beside this, the High Court ordered that the Home Ministry, along with the Ministry of Labour, BD Police and Fire Service to submit the investigation report within next two weeks following.<\/p>\n Also on the 26th of November 2012 rule, two days after the incident, the Court had ordered NHRC to produce a list of a ten member investigation committee lead by an ex-Judge. Unfortunately, the submission of the committee list had taken 155 days, to which the High Court expressed sheer agitation.<\/p>\n ASK, allied with BLAST put a writ petition on 25 April 2013, to make an in-depth inquiry on Savar Tragedy, to secure proper implementation of building code to avoid such repetitions in future and to ascertain a garment worker\u2019s right to live a secure life as well as a right to legal shelter.<\/p>\n The Hearing took place on 29th Apil 2013.\u00a0 The Petitioners produced a Daily Star Report before the Court with the reference to the chairperson of RAJUK, the government administration responsible for the planning, permission, building regulation and land management of the city of Dhaka, the chairperson of Rajuk mentions in the report that despite being located in Savar, they were incapable of taking necessary steps. The petitioner expressed his view to punish the accused parties of Spectrum and Tazreen to hinder these repetitions and further deaths in the future<\/p>\n Recently there has been revolt prevailing among the garment workers since the unreasonable factory deaths due to building code and law violations. As such, the writ petitioners claimed for the Court\u2019s intervention for a combined and regulated progress. They also put an appeal to mark the reasons behind the occurrences, to rehabilitate the living survivors, to compensate the victims and to ensure the guilty undergo trial to secure necessary remedy.<\/p>\n The basic rights bestowed upon the workers in the sections 31 and 32 of the Constitution, as well as in the Labour Law 2006, have been violated at the failure of the owners. As a result, the petitioners besought to take initiatives against the owners, according to the penal code and Labour Law 2006. An appeal for summoning Sohel Rana and the other owners to the Court to explain their accountabilities were made as well.<\/p>\n During the hearing, Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam, on behalf of the government, informed that Sohel Rana and others had been arrested. He announced a proposal of budgeting approximately 600 million Bangladesh taka for the survivors and victims families, 1 million for each. He also shared his personal opinion, which was to collect the half money from the building owner and the other half from the factory owners.<\/p>\n The Court, after the hearing, issued a rule to the owners to submit answers as to why they would not be brought to proper inquiry and legal actions within seven days. Moreover, why there would not be any indemnity for the suffering families or, why they would not be rehabilitated was likely to be answered as well. The court gave a notice to forclose all the bank accounts belonging to the owners from which salaries and other indemnities could be drawn for the workers. On 30 April 2013, the Court summoned Sohel Rana and the factory owners.\u00a0 The following Hearing held on the 13 May 2013, when the Court sent a notice to the Mayor (acting) of Savar City Corporation to submit all the Rana Plaza papers, equipped with the list of the relatives living locally and also with the identity, appointment letter and photos of the victims.<\/p>\n A litigation on factory deaths, filed in 1997 at the High Court had been settled in 2001, though no recent suit faced the same. The Spectrum, Tazreen and Rana Plaza lawyer,Barrister Sara Hossain, attended an interview by The Daily Star dated 3 May 2013. She alleged that the thin monitoring by the govt and the highly packed lines of litigations were the possible reasons behind the repeated failure to address this problem. She mentioned how ann in-depth union between the government and the bench of the Chief Juctice was necessaryShe suggested that the Home Ministry catalogue these suits as super-sensitve and to fast track these cases under a quick trial. On the other hand, Nipendranath Das, the acting Deputy-Head of the Factory Inspection Dept in the Dhaka district, said to The daily Prothom AloWe have only 17 inspectors, they are assigned to inspect 16,000 factories. So, despite our profound willingness, we cannot go through all the factories.\u201d The confusions arises, as to why the government is not appointing more inspectors even after facing these type of accidents so often.<\/p>\n Death at workplaces, especially at garment factories are being accepted as an everyday occurrence. In 1997, ASK pleaded for a writ to determine the workers\u2019 life-security. The High Court issued an order to form a national inspection committee and a five-paragraph notice was sent to the govt with no positive consequences.<\/p>\n Some more suits had been filed at the Court of Labour from time to time to extort compensations for the victims. No less than 91 ligitations of this sort had been filed in between 2008 and 2013, among which only 47 were settled. Compensations had come from 19 suits. At present, 47 litigations are waiting to be solved.<\/p>\n Death in garment factories result from criminal negligence in the implementation and inspection of laws. Moreover, the Government cabinet\u2019s reluctance and the life long legal procedures stall the chances for the victims to get legal remedy, thus making justice a far cry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> 1 May 2013, The Daily Prothom Alo<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [2]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> 25 April2013, BDNews24.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [3]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> 3 May 2013, The Daily Star<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n45 cases had been filed against the factory owners, Shahriar Sayeed Hassan and Abul Hashem Fakir, as informed by Sayeed Salahuddin Ahmed, the Asst. Managing Director of BILS. However, nothing could be known about the whereabouts of the accused owners.\u00a0 ASK,\u00a0 BLAST, BELA and Nijera Kori filed a writ petition, in which the High Court had given directions for investigations into the cause of the collapse. Hearing have been pending for seven\u00a0 years.\u00a0 The Attorney General, Mahbub Alam, admitted on16 May 2013 in \u201cThe Daily Star\u201d of his ignorance of the petition but emphasized that he would take actions to settle it.<\/p>\n
\nThe Factory caught fire with a huge blast as the generators were running with no electric supply. Each floor was locked along with the main entrance, the only staircase was blocked with bales of garments, which led to 57 workers\u2019 burning to death. The building had no emergency exit.<\/p>\n
\n The irony is, like earlier cases, the factory lacked adequate fire exits, the doorways had been locked shut and there was no emergency exit, leaving no way out. Chilling photographs from the scene show how the fire extinguishers were all intact, unused because staff had not been trained to use them. These were the initial facts which were found upon investigation, which directly holds the owner of the factory to be solely responsible for the 112 deaths through criminal negligence.<\/span><\/p>\n
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