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Associated Press

Five years after more than a thousand people were killed when a poorly-built Bangladesh clothing factory collapsed on top of its workforce, a study has found nearly half the country’s factories still pose life-threatening risks. 
Researchers found that while the Rana Plaza disaster in April 2013 prompted a range of improvements within the textile industry, there is still cause for grave concern.
The Rana Plaza building had been expanded illegally, with additional floors stacked one on top of another. An engineer had declared it unsafe, and the thousands of people who worked inside, stitching garments for clothing brands from around the world, knew it was trouble.
“That factory was very risky,” said Khadiza Begum, who was working at Rana Plaza the day the complex collapsed, five years ago Tuesday. “It had weak pillars, it had narrow stairwells, it had no fire exits.”
“We saw cracks in the building before it collapsed on us,” she said.
The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500. It focused international attention on Bangladesh’s role as the world’s second-largest garment producer, and led the government and manufacturing associations to promise big improvements.
Many of the world’s top clothing brands said they would stop contracting with factories if they failed to improve safety for their workers.
Five years later, the situation is complicated, according to a recent study conducted by the Centre for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“We have found tremendous improvement in the larger factories,” that have signed onto two major safety programmes organised by foreign brands, Paul Barrett, deputy director of the centre, said in an email.
“But two other categories – factories overseen by the government and subcontracting facilities not overseen by anyone – remain at risk.”

The centre’s survey of conditions at Bangladesh’s textile factories, found that workers at about 3,000 of the country’s 7,000 factories are still exposed to life-threatening risks, ranging from a lack of fire safety equipment to serious structural flaws.
The dangerous factories are often small, but sometimes subcontract work from larger factories that deal with foreign brands.
Those factories rarely allow access for journalists, though the best-equipped factories are eager to show off their workplaces.
S.M. Khaled is the managing director of the Snowtex Outerwear Ltd Factory, a US$42 million complex built after the 2013 disaster in the industrial suburb of Dhamrai, outside the capital Dhaka.
“The collapse of Rana Plaza was a wake-up call for us – for the industry and for the buyers,” he said as he walked through the factory. “Look at my factory. Look around. I have done my best to keep it safe for the workers.”
“We have invested a lot to keep my factories safe and compliant,” he said.
Snowtex, which does business with some of the world’s top brands, has about 8,000 workers in its five-storey factory, each floor spread over 52,000 square feet.
The factory has wide stairwells, emergency exits, fire safety equipment, sprinklers and first-aid equipment on hand. Workers have been trained in fire safety and rescue techniques and the factory runs regular fire drills.
It’s just a few kilometres from where Rana Plaza stood.
All that is a relief to Begum, who was trapped for hours after the Rana Plaza collapse. She was so shaken by the experience she didn’t work for two years.
“I took a job at a garment factory, but after one or two days there I had the feeling that the floor was shaking, or the building would fall down. I was afraid, and after one or two days I couldn’t work anymore,” she said.
Eventually, with her family desperately needing money, she got a job at Snowtex.
“It’s very different here,” she said, sitting in front of a sewing machine. “This building is good and strong.”
Textile exports are a huge business for Bangladesh, bringing in US$28 billion annually, mostly from to Europe and the US.
Many of the improvements after the Rana Plaza collapse were brought on with pressure from two safety programmes organised by foreign textile brands: The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, organised by European brands, and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker safety, which was backed by North American retailers.
Under the programmes, some 2,300 factories have been inspected and many have upgraded their safety standards.
Industry insiders guardedly admit that subcontracting remains an issue in the garment industry, with larger businesses sometimes contracting some work to smaller, less-safe factories. They insist those deals are being phased out.
Khaled said the established factories know they are being monitored by the international brands, and don’t want to get in trouble by subcontracting.
“This is no longer a major concern like it was before,” he said, adding that many smaller factories only produce clothes for local markets.
But Barrett disagrees.
“Subcontractors do exist and play an important role in the industry,” he said in an email. “Denial has consequences.”
Worker safety should not depend on where the clothing is being worn, Roy Ramesh Chandra, president of Bangladesh’s United Federation of Garment Workers, said in an interview.
“Authorities need to address all the factories – whether it is producing for export” or for Bangladeshis.


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Bangladesh factory collapse

A Bangladeshi woman is lifted out of the rubble by rescuers at the site of the Rana Plaza building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 25, 2013. Photo: AP

In this April 19, 2018 photo, Bangladeshi garment worker Khadiza Begum, 23, who worked at the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed five years ago, works at a garment factory in Dhamrai, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

In this April 20, 2018 photo, Bangladeshi garment worker Nilufa Begum, 38, who worked on the 7th floor of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed, sits at her home in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

RNPS - PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2013 - People rescue garment workers trapped under rubble at the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 24, 2013. An eight-storey block housing garment factories and a shopping centre collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 500, the Ntv television news channel reported. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj (BANGLADESH - Tags: DISASTER BUSINESS TPX)

In this April 19, 2018 photo, trainees at a garment factory work at Snowtex garment factory in Dhamrai, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the Rana Plaza garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

In this April 20, 2018 photo, Sharmin Akhter hugs her mother Moyna Begum, who worked on the 7th floor of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed five years ago, at their home in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new survey says that five years after the Rana Plaza garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured some things have changed for the better for the workers who toiled in the country's huge garment industry but much remains to be done. The survey by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business found that the largest factories generally have complied with new safety standards set by foreign clothing brands since the 2013 accident. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladesh accuses 17 over Rana Plaza garment factory collapse that killed 1,130

File photo of a Bangladeshi woman survivor being lifted out of the rubble by rescuers at the site of the Rana Plaza building collapse. Bangladesh is accusing 17 people of breaching regulations over the construction of the Rana Plaza building. Photo: AP

Bangladesh charges Rana Plaza factory owner with murder over 2013 tragedy

People rescue garment workers trapped under rubble at the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed in Savar in 2013. Photo: Reuters

Bangladeshi security personnel escort Sohel Rana after a court appearance in Dhaka. Photo: AFP

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A worker leaves the site where a garment factory building collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh Monday, April 29, 2013. The collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka that killed 1,129 people. (AP Photo/Ismail Ferdous, File)

Bangladeshi civiliant volunteers assist in rescue operations after an eight-storey building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, on April 24, 2013. At least 15 people were killed and many more feared dead when an eight-storey building housing a market and garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, officials said. AFP PHOTO/Munir uz ZAMAN / AFP PHOTO / MUNIR UZ ZAMAN [12JUNE2016 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

Almost 200 workers from Rana Plaza factory collapse still listed as missing

Relatives of missing factory workers hold photographs of their family members during a protest in Savar, near Dhaka. Photo: AP

Benetton donates more than US$1m to Bangladesh's Rana Plaza factory victims 

People rescue garment workers trapped under rubble at the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed in April 2013. Photo: Reuters

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Southeast Asia

Large factories linked to foreign enterprises boosted safety standards in wake of tragedy that claimed 1,134 lives, but other facilities remain at risk, according to study


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Bangladesh garment industry