Groupe Auchan has decided to contribute a total of $1.5 million to the Rana Plaza Donor’s Trust Fund set up under the auspices of the ILO.
PARIS, 2014-8-28 — /EPR Retail News/ — The company’s employees, buyers, Group council personnel representatives, and shareholders were all distressed by the tragedy of April 24, 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a building housing the sewing workshops resulted in the death of 1,135 workers and wounded 1,800 others.
A pair of children’s trousers of our brand was found there 20 days after the tragedy, although we had never placed any orders with any of those workshops.
Since that time the company has done its best to ensure such a disaster can never be repeated:
- by signing the Fire & Safety Building Agreement, an international agreement instigated in particular by several international trade unions
- by setting up an 8-point plan to combat obscure subcontracting and corruption, whose first results were released at the beginning of April.
However, this catastrophe affected more than 3,000 families whose situation is today very precarious. Various initiatives in their favour are being implemented and organised effectively to provide for their healthcare and rehabilitation, and cover their vital necessities and those of their children. But insufficient aid funding has been obtained.
Just recently, under the impetus of the ILO and the OECD, the French Minister of Economy and Finance asked his country’s businesses -as did seven of his European counterparts- to rally in aid of these people experiencing extreme difficulties, and thus mark their support for Bangladesh, a country where many of them procure goods.
This is why on August 20, after ruling out a compensation procedure which would have constituted a recognition of liability, Groupe Auchan decided to contribute a total of $1.5 million to the Rana Plaza Donor’s Trust Fund set up under the auspices of the ILO, to mark its solidarity with the workers of that country where part of its brand’s clothing is manufactured.
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