Primark has said it is to pay a further $10 million (£6m) in compensation to the clothing workers who became the victims in Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza (pictured) collapse which killed 1,000 employees.
Of the total, $9 million will be distributed directly to 581 workers, or their families, who had been employed by Primark’s supplier, New Wave Bottoms.
The remaining $1m will go into a communal compensation pot to be shared among all the 3,600 workers who suffered when the eight-storey complex fell to the ground last April.
The company had already paid $2 million for short-term support for all the workers operating in Rana Plaza, including those producing for other brands.
The ILO has been pushing for companies to use the communal process for payment so that all victims are treated even-handedly. Campaigners have expressed fears of further social unrest in the country if compensation is not disbursed in timely and equal ways.
The total compensation needed is believed to be $40 million, but the communal pot is thought to contain some $6 million.
So far only eight brands are known to have said they have paid into the scheme.
Donations contributing to the $6 million have come from Bonmarché, El Corte Inglés, Inditex, Mango, Mascot, Premier Clothing and Loblaw.
C&A, the Dutch retailer that had sourced from the factory until about 18 months before it collapsed, said it had donated $500,000 while KiK, a discount clothing retailer in Germany, and Cropp, a Polish brand, also said they had donated to the fund. This is not confirmed on the ILO website.
Benetton and Matalan have donated only to separate schemes which support some workers who were left disabled. The amounts are not known.
The giant retailer, Walmart, which used Rana Plaza about a year before, has not confirmed any compensation.
