More than 250 garments workers killed

http://gmpsiaprec.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/more-than-250-garments-workers-killed.html More than 250  garment workers, mostly women, have been  killed and more than two thousand injured as a eight-storey building having five apparel units and a shopping mall collapsed on at Savar near Dhaka city on Wednesday morning at 9,00. Several hundred more workers believed to have been trapped inside. Several hundred rescue workers consisting of Fire brigade members, members from army, navy, air force & other volunteers including the local people are involved in bringing out the trapped workers as well as dead bodies of the ill fated workers.   Death toll could be rising significantly.

250 bodies have so far been recovered from the debris,

On 23^rd April the workers noticed that there some cracks in some of the pillars of the 8 storied building. Immediately the building was evacuated. The members from industrial police & other concern persons including one local engineer visited the building & asked owner of the building & the factory owners not to use the building as it has become a risky one & also asked the owners to consult with the experts for further opinion. The police also sealed the building so that no can enter the building. But the owner of the building, who is a political figure of the party in power asked the factory owner to ignore the warning given earlier by the police & other persons & the factory owners forced the workers to join their duties.

The building housed five garment  factories — Ether Tex Limited, New Wave Style Limited, Phantom Apparels Limited, New Wave Bottoms Limited, and Phantom Tac Limited  with  more than 5,000 workers in all. Due to general strike & due to that crack the presence of the worker was less.  It may take two three more days to complete the rescue work.

Local people complained that the owner kept the building open even after engineers had ordered the building to be evacuated on 23 April. Cracks developed in the building about 9:00am on Tuesday, the 23 Aril and local engineers advised the evacuation soon after the cracks were noticed.
The garment factory owners ignored the advice and kept the factories open.  A number of workers alleged that they had been forced to join work in the building although there were fears that the building might collapse any time.

The rescue work is still on (10 PM BST -25 April 2013)  we are expecting some more  bodies are going to be recovered.

The police filed the case against Sohel Rana, owner of the building named Rana Plaza, and the apparel factory owners. The labour ministry set up a five-member committee to investigate the incident.
The government has announced national mourning for today (25 April 2013) in memory of the deceased..

On the 27th April  Hafizul Hossain  provided additional advice that " So far Total 306 bodies recovered & 2400 workers rescued. Rescue operation is still on." 

Advice from 

Hafizul Hossain

Secretary, NCC,

Public Services International

25 April 2013