Workers’ right to compensation after garment factory disasters: making rights a reality

In recent years, a number of garment factory fires and building collapses have taken place in countries where the statutory provision of workers’ compensation for death and injury at work is weak or non-existent. In response to these disasters, industry stakeholders have developed innovative new schemes to award compensation to injured workers and the families of those killed, consistent with international standards for compensating occupational death or injury. This report compares three major compensation schemes of this kind: the Rana Plaza Arrangement, the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust, and the Ali Enterprises compensation arrangement. It draws out guiding principles, lessons learned, and best practices for workers’ compensation for death or injury in global supply chains in the absence of a reliable, rights-based national employment injury insurance system in the producer country. With the commitment and cooperation of industry, government, and civil society, survivors of garment factory disasters can be compensated to internationally recognised standards, even in the absence of a national employment injury insurance system. However, these kinds of post facto compensation schemes should not interfere with the establishment of national employment injury insurance systems in garment-producing countries, and indeed can be used as an opportunity to help develop technical capacity, administrative infrastructure, and political will for such national-level systems.