Victims of Bangladesh Factory Collapse File Class Action Against US Apparel Retailers
Two victims of the 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh filed a class action lawsuit April 23 against the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, JCPenney, The Children’s Place, Wal-Mart at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Filed the day before the two-year anniversary of the disaster, which killed 1,129 Bangladeshi garment workers, the lawsuit alleges the three U.S. retailers (all of which sourced products from the ill-fated factory) and the Bangladeshi government should have known Rana Plaza was not safe, and caused the safety issues with their own actions.
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According to the complaint, filed by the representative of a mother of four killed in the collapse and a man maimed in the incident, the retailers’ indirect sourcing model made oversight difficult and forced Bangladeshi factories to cut costs, including by failing to address safety concerns. The complaint says an engineer ordered the factory closed the day before the collapse on April 23, 2013 after seeing cracks in the building, but factory owners forced the garment workers to report to work the next day because they were under pressure from U.S. and European companies to deliver merchandise on time. The factory collapsed at around 8:57 that morning.