On April 24, 2013, an eight-story factory, known as The Rana Plaza, in Bangladesh came tumbling down killing 1,100 workers’ and leaving 2,500 injured. This number includes workers’ and their children that were in the onsite nursery at the time the building collapsed. The most disturbing part is that the employers knew that the building was unsafe before it collapsed. In fact, the day before the accident, the building was evacuated due to structural cracks that could be seen throughout the building. The next day workers’ were ordered to return to work as usual.

In a complaint filed July 21, 2015 family members of some of the employees who were killed claim that the building’s owner failed to comply with the building codes that could have prevented the deaths of so many innocent workers’. The plaintiffs in the suit are seeking compensatory and punitive damages for negligence and wrongful death.

The plaintiffs claim that the reason that the retailers could supply “garments at such a low cost was because the subcontractors often operated substandard and unsafe factories which put garment workers’ at significant risk of severe personal injury or death.” A few of the U.S. based employers that were located in this building are Wal-mart, The Children’s Place and J.C. Penney.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/2015/07/24/retailers-sued-over-2013-building-collapse.htm

Original Article posted on WorkersCompensation.com.