Bangladesh Factory Collapse Case Study

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Ethics mngt221 assignment Ethical issue: Bangladesh Factory collapse Bangladesh is one of the world 's most densely populated countries, with its people crammed into a delta of rivers that empties into the Bay of Bengal (BBC, 2015). Poverty is widespread, where many people suffer from malnutrition especially in the rural areas. The structural failure of the Rana Plaza collapse, an eight-story commercial building, occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This resulted in 1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza, and over a year later 200 are still missing (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, 2015). The building, Rana Plaza, was owned by Sohel Rana, whom illegally extended the six-storey building, into a nine-storey factory complex. After the building …show more content…

As soon as the shift to a free trade regime appeared along with the competition with countries such as China and Indonesia the quick collapse of Bangladesh’s textile industry has been predicted. However, the opposite occurred. We can highlight three major reasons to explain what happened: First is labour costs are low, even lower than in China. Obviously low hourly wages rates explain it but not only. Investments by textile manufacturers in productivity-boosting technology lowered the labour costs in Bangladesh making it one of the world’s low-cost producers. Indeed, this was an advantage during the Recession because big importers increased their purchases at low prices. Second is strong network of supporting industries. Thus, garments Manufacturers save transport and storage costs, import duties which boost their productivity. “People went two weeks without proper food or shelter as they waited to claim the bodies of loved ones so they could bury them in their villages” (Estrin,

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