Final EC Report - Tazreen Claims Administration Trusttazreenclaimstrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Final...2016/08/26 · Final Report of the Executive Commissioner to TCA Coordination

Final Report of the Executive Commissioner to TCA Coordination Committee

26 August 2016

TAZREEN CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION TRUST

ROAD 49, HOUSE 3B, FTAT 2C, GULSHAN 2, DHAKA-1212

HTTP://TAZREENCLAIMSTRUST.ORG/

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http://tazreenclaimstrust.org/

Acknowledgement

The process of setting up an ad hoc claim program, with administrative and quasi-judicial

functions, and to receive, review and finalize compensation awards, and to receive fund and

effect payments for about 600 injured workers and family members of the deceased and

missing workers of Tazreen fire, in a short span of time and in less than a year, was a

collective effort. It simply would not have been possible to carry out the programme without

the valuable support of many individuals and organizations in and outside Bangladesh, some

of whom but not all are mentioned below.

My gratitude goes first to the members of Tazreen Coordination Committee, particularly, C &

A Global, C & A Foundation, IndustriaALL Global Union, and Clean Clothes Campaign, who

initiated the program, adopted various policies and oversaw the administration of the TCA

and payment of awards. The able chairmanship of Philip Chamberlain, and the collegiality of

the members, led to the fast and smooth decision making at the Coordination Committee

and expedited the program. C & A foundation and its senior management played an

undeniably distinctive role. I much benefited from the experience, advice and support of Jill

Tucker and Frauke Gorosabel. Together with Sam Maher (from CCC), they assisted at the

planning and set-up phase of the program, and later on resolving whatever issue and

problem we encountered, in addition to their roles at the Coordination Committee.

I like to express my sincere thanks to HE Mr. Mikail Shipar, the Labour Secretary of

Bangladesh, and his close aids, particularly Mr. Khondaker Mostan Hossain and Mr.

Humayun Kabir, who represented the Ministry of Labour at the Coordination and Steering

Committees, for their invaluable support and guidance. I am most grateful to Mr. Srinivas B.

Reddy, Country Director, ILO Country Office for Bangladesh, and his able team, for their

unconditional cooperation and guidance. I thank André Picard, ILO Geneva, for his technical

assistance in adopting the VBA tool for Tazreen programme. Mr. Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed

from Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, Dr .Wajedul Islam Khan from National

Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education, Mr. Farooq Ahmed, Secretary-General of

Bangladesh Employers Federation, and Mr. WgCdr (Rtd) M. Z. Hayder from BGMEA, as well

as Dr. Hameeda Hossain and Barrister Sara Hossain were always open to receive and

respondto my frequent and urgent requests for information and assistance on a variety of

issues throughout the programme. I am most grateful to all of them.

I also wish to thank the members of the Steering Committee, namely, Bangladesh Institute of

Labour Studies (BILS), Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association

(BGMEA), National Garments Workers Foundation (NGWF), Bangladesh Legal Aid and

Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), Bangladesh

Garment and Industrial Workers' Federation (BGIWF), Bangladesh Occupational Safety,

Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE), Activist Anthropologist, and representative

from Ministry of Labour and Employment for their active participations and valuable advice

on various issues.

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My special thanks to Caritas for sharing their experience and information on previous

assistance provided to Tazreen workers and their families, and for assisting the TCA in

purchasing Government Saving Certificates (Shanchaipatra) for the beneficiaries located in

Rangpur. I also thank Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) for conducting the

medical assessment for the Tazreen injured workers, Technohaven for the design of the

data base and providing IT supports, and Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd for banking supports for

the Tazreen claimants. I thank A Qasem& Co for conducting the compliance audit of TCA.

The program would not have been possible without the generous financial contributions of

C&A Foundation, Fung (1906) Foundation Ltd, BRAC USA, KiKTextilien UND Non Food G,

and EL Corte Ingles S.A.. The five of them together covered the USD 2.5 million that was

needed for payment of compensation awards and for providing for the costs of long term

medical care for injured workers. In addition, C&A Foundation paid all the administrative and

running costs of TCA separately. I thank all of them for their contributions and donations.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my TCA colleagues, Barrister Mohammed Kawsar,

Sangita Gazi, Barrister Anusheh Ali, Barrister Ahnaf Chowdhury, Md. Al-Anar, Delwar

Hossain, Md. Mizanur Rahman, Md. Al Shahriar, Thamina Akter and Rezoanul Haque Azom

for their hard work and devotion to make the programme successful.

Mojtaba Kazazi

Executive Commissioner

*******

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Table of Contents

1. Background……………………………………………………………………………………….8

2. Initial Assistance provided to Tazreen Workers……………………………………………....9

i. Financial Assistance Provided through the Government ……………………………9

ii. BGMEA’s salary support………………………………………………………………..9

iii. Programs administered by Caritas for Deceased, Missing and Injured Workers

with financing from C&A Foundation and Fung (1906) Foundation……………….10

a) Program Funded by C&A Foundation…………………………………………..10

b) Education Grant to Orphan Children Funded by C&A Foundation and Fung

(1906) Foundation…………………………………………………………………10

3. Establishment of TazreenClaims Administration…………………………………………...11

4. Statistics of received Deceased and Missing Claims……………………………………...12

5. Establishing a reliable list of Deceased and Missing Workers…………………………...13

6. Establishing a reliable list of Injured Workers………………………………………………14

7. Tazreen Database…………………………………………………………………………….15

8. Preregistration Counselling and Advice to the Claimants…………………………………16

9. Claim Registration and Cutoff date…..……………………………………………………….17

10. Review of Claims and Verification of Documents…………………………………………...18

11. Calculation of Compensation………………………………………………………………….19

12. Determining Factor in Calculation of Compensation………………………………………19

12.1 Salary of the Deceased and Missing workers………………………………...19

12.2 Date of calculation……………………………………………………………….19

12.3 Eligible Dependents……………………………………………………………..20

12.4 Age of the Deceased/Missing Worker and Dependents……………………..20

13. Review of Missing Claims…………………………………………………………………….21

14. Deduction of Financial Assistance previously received from Prime Minister Welfare

Fund……………………………………………………………………………………………..22

15. Injured workers who Died Subsequently……………………………………………………23

16. Multiple Deceased Claims in a Single Family………………………………………………24

17. Non-Eligible Claims……………………………………………………………………………24

18. Non-Eligible Dependents……………………………………………………………………..24

19. Other Exceptional Cases……………………………………………………………………..25

20. Registration of Claims after Deadline of 15 February 2016 ………………………………26

21. Review of Injured Workers……………………………………………………………………26

22. Possible Remaining Claims…………………………………………………………………..27

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23. Notice of Awards (NoAs)……………………………………………………………………...28

23.2 Deceased and Missing……………………………………………………………….28

23.3 Injured………………………………………………………………………………….28

24. Request for Correction………………………………………………………………………..28

25. Medical Reassessment……………………………………………………………………….29

26. Source of Funding……………………………………………………………………………..29

26.2 Fund receipt for payment of compensation…………………………………….29

26.3 Administrative costs………………………………………………………………30

27. Authorization of Payments……………………………………………………………………30

27.1 Deceased and Missing……………………………………………………………...30

27.2 Additional Deceased Claim…………………………………………………………30

27.3 Recalculation on the basis of MoLE information…………………………………31

27.4 Injured………………………………………………………………………………...31

27.5 Supplementary Amounts……………………………………………………………31

28. Payments Made………………………………………………………………………………32

29. Arrangements for Government Savings Certificates (“SANCHAYAPATRA”) in Dhaka

and Rangpur District……………………………………………………………………….…33

30. Press Release………………………………………………………………………………...35

31. Long Term Medical Care…………………………………………………………………….35

32. Financial Compliance Audit.…………………………………………………………………36

33. Closing Down and Transfer of TCA Documents…………………………………………..37

ANNEXURE

ANNEX 1: SUMMARY INFORMATION OF FOUR CASES ON FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

OBTAINED FROM MOLE……………………………………………………………………….39

ANNEX 2: NOTE ON TWO NON-ELIGIBLE INJURED CLAIMS AND ONE NON-ELIGIBLE

MISSING CLAIM…………………………………………………………………………………..40

ANNEX 3: NOTE ON TWO NON-ELIGIBLE DEPENDANTS………………………………..42

ANNEX 4: ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN TAZREEN CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION TRUST

AND CARITAS……………………………………………………………………………………..43

ANNEX 5: SAMPLE NOTICE OF AWARDS……………………………………………………45

ANNEX 6: A REPORT ON DISTRIBUTION OF NOAS………………………………………50

ANNEX 7: SUMMARY REPORT ON REQUEST FOR CORRECTION……………………51

ANNEX 8: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR DECEASED

AND MISSING TAZREEN WORKERS…………………………………………………………52

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ANNEX 9: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR ONE

ADDITIONAL DECEASED TAZREEN WORKERS……………………………………………54

ANNEX 10: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR INJURED

TAZREEN WORKERS……………………………………………………………………………56

ANNEX 11: PRESS RELEASE……………………………………………………………………58

ANNEX 12: INFORMATION ON 172 INJURED WORKERS INCLUDING THEIR DISABILITY

LEVEL PERCENTAGE OF BOTH PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL…………………….60

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AA Activist Anthropologist

A/C Account

AQC A. Qasem & Co.

BB Bangladesh Bank

BCWS Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity

BGIWF Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers' Federation

BDT Bangladeshi Taka

BEF Bangladesh Employers Federation

BGMEA Bangladesh Garments Manufacturer Associations

BILS Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies

BLAST Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust

BLWF Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation

CC Co-ordination Committee

CRP Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed

DBBL Dutch Bangla Bank Limited

DLP Disability Level Percentage

DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid

EUR European Currency

GOB Government of Bangladesh

ILO International Labour Organisation

MoLE Ministry of Labour and Employment

MoHFW Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

NCCWE National Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education

NGO Non- Government Organisation

NGWF National Garments Workers Foundation

NOA Notice of Award

PMWF Prime Minister Welfare Fund

PMO Prime Minister Office

RMG Ready Made Garments

RPCA Rana Plaza Claims Administration

RPCC Rana Plaza Coordination Committee

SC Steering Committee

SI Serial

Tazreen Tazreen Fashions Limited

TCA Tazreen Claims Administration

TCAT Tazreen Claims Administration Trust

ToR Terms of Reference

USD United States Dollar

ABBREVIATIONS

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1. BACKGROUND

1.1. Tazreen Fashions Limited (“Tazreen”), a sister concern of Tuba Group was established

on 6 May 2010 in Nischintapur, Zirabo, Savar, Dhaka. It employed around 4500

workers of which about 80% were female. The factory was operational from 1st floor to

6th floor in a nine-storiedbuilding. Tazreen produced clothes for various global brands

and organizations includingKiK, C&A, Walmart, Li & Fung, among others. The annual

turn-over of Tazreen was over USD 36 million.

1.2. The nine-storied building in which Tazreen was located had 3 (three) staircases- all of

them leading to the ground floor which was used as a warehouse for yarns and fabrics

needed for production. Out of these 3 staircases, one was used for the go-down, one

was used by female workers and the other was used by male workers. The building did

not have any emergency exit.

1.3. On 24 November, 2012, a fire broke out at Tazreen around 6.45 to 7 pm in the

evening. The fire, as reported by the Fire Service Department, started from the

warehouse of yarns and fabrics located on the ground floor. The blaze killed more than

100 workers and injured a few hundred. At the time of fire, there were as many as 2000

workers working from 3rd floor to 5th floor in the building. The highly inflammable

materials which were kept on the floor in a disorganized manner was thought to be one

of the main reasons for the quick spreading of fire and trapping of the workers on the

floors above. It is also believed that the design of building, the staircase and lack of

emergency exit triggered the situation while workers tried to escape. It was also stated

by a substantial number of survivor workers that the workers who tried to leave the

factory at the time of fire, were resisted by the Production Managers and the collapsible

gates were also locked. As a result, many workers jumped out of the building and

others who were trapped inside were either burnt or suffocated to death. Many of the

victims were unrecognizable because of the severity of the burns.

1.4. After the Tazreen fire, numerous organizations came forward to confirm the identities

of the deceased and missing workers and ensure compensation for their families.

Though it was comparatively easier to identify 58 deceased workers whose dead

bodies were delivered to their families, it was necessary to conduct DNA tests for those

whose bodies were unidentified. There were as many as 59 unidentified dead bodies

which were sent to “Anjuman Mofidul Islam” (a charity providing burial services for

unclaimed/unknown dead bodies) for burial after collecting their DNA samples.

Subsequently, the families of the missing workers provided their blood samples. There

are 43 missing workers who were identified by DNA test process while there are also a

number of workers whose DNA did not match with the donor blood samples. There

were also two workers who were initially regarded as injured but subsequently died as

a result of their injuries.

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2. INITIAL ASSISTANCE PROVIDED TO TAZREEN WORKERS

2.1. There was no full and comprehensive compensation mechanism for Tazreen

deceased, missing and injured workers until the establishment of the TCA, However,

since the incident of 24 November 2012, there have been a number of programs

through which financial and other assistance were provided to the families of Tazreen

deceased and missing workers and to the injured workers.

2.2. The main sources of assistance provided to the workers were the following

organisations:

i. Financial Assistance provided through the Government

According to the list received from the Prime Minister’s Office and BGMEA, the number

of compensated deceased and missing workers who received assistance is 109 and

the number of compensated injured workers is 104 (14 by Prime Minister’s Office and

90 by BGMEA).

The families of 108 workers were paid BDT 7 lac, anda family of 1 worker was paid

BDT 3 lac as compensation from the Prime Minister’s Office and other donors.

90 injured workers were paidBDT 1 lac each from BGMEA and 14 injured workers

were paid BDT 50,000 from the Prime Minister’s Office as compensation.

TCA was informed that the contributions (in BDTand source of funding of the BDT 7 lac

which was paid to each family of 108 deceased and missing workers through the

Prime Office ,were as follows:

- Prime Minister’s office BDT 2 lac

- Ministry of Labor and Employment 1 lac

- Lee & Fung 1 lac

- C & A Foundation 1 lac

- Bankers’ Association of Bangladesh 1 lac

- BGMEA 1 lac

ii. BGMEA’s Salary Support

A salary scheme has been undertaken by BGMEA for the families of the deceased and

missing workers. Under this scheme, since December 2012 BGMEA has been

providing salaries to the families of 99 deceased and missing workers based on their

designation and their last salary received.

For the injured workers, BGMEA has provided salaries for the months of November

and December 2012 including other allowances and benefits which were due up to the

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date of event. In this program, BGMEA has covered 1024 workers which included the

injured workers as well.

iii. Programs administered by Caritas for Deceased, Missing and Injured Workers

with financing from C&A Foundation and Fung (1906) Foundation

Since the fire that occurred on 24 November 2012 in Tazreen Fashions Limited,

Caritas with the financing from C&A Foundation and Fung (1906) Foundation has been

carrying out various assistance and support programs to the families of the deceased

and missing workers and the injured workers. Following is an overview:

a) Program Funded by C&A Foundation

- Salary Compensation and Medical /Psycho-Social Treatment for Injured

Workers

Caritas provided salary support and medical / psycho-social treatment to

104 injured workers. The salaries were calculated to be at one grade

higher than the workers’ grade at the time of the tragedy. Medical

treatment was provided in Dhaka (travel costs paid) with follow-up visits in

the communities where the patients live. Caritas staff made regular house-

visits to monitor the individual situation of the injured workers and to

provide counseling. To date, 11 workers continue undergoing treatment

and receiving salary support which shall last till December 2016.

- Vocational Training with Business Capitalfor Injured Workers

Caritas provided in 2014 three months of vocational training for different

trades (tailoring, animal husbandry, mobile phone service), management

training and business capital of BDT 30,000/- to 31 injured workers to

enable them to start their own businesses.

- Financial Support and Counselling for Elderly Dependents of Deceased

Workers

Caritas provides monthly support of BDT 1,200 to 47 dependent elderly

family members (mostly parents) of deceased and missing workers. This

support started in December 2012 and shall continue till December 2016.

b) Education Grant to Orphan Children Funded by C&A Foundation and

Fung (1906) Foundation

Caritas is providing educational support to 89 orphan children of 64 deceased

and missing workers until they are 18 years old. Currently, 85 children

receiveabout BDT 4,000 per month: BDT 1,200 is given for immediate

expenses to the child’s guardian and BDT 2,800 is deposited in a bank account

which the child can access once s/he reached 18 years of age. This program

will continue until June 2030.

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3. ESTABLISHMENT OF TAZREEN CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION

3.1. In November 2014, C&A, C&A Foundation, IndustriALL Global Union and Clean

Clothes Campaign extended their support to establish and implement an arrangement,

based on the experience and success of Rana Plaza Claims Administration, to provide

compensation to the Tazreen fire victims. For this purpose, and with the support from

ILO, a Memorandum of Understanding (the “MoU”) was made and executed for

payment of compensation to the victims of Tazreen fire and their families and

dependents in a transparent and equitable manner based on their financial and

medical need.

3.2. In the light of the MoU, an Executive Commissioner was selected, a small team was

assembled to assist the Executive Commissioner, office space was rented, and

Tazreen Claims Administration Trust (the “TCA”) was established in late September

2015. by the above Similar to RPCA, the mandate of the TCA was to receive, review

the compensation claims and make payments to the eligible family members of the

deceased and missing workers and to the injured workers of the Tazreen fire accident

in accordance with the ILO Convention 121 and the applicable laws of Bangladesh.

TCA is headed by the Executive Commissioner and is overseen by Tazreen

Coordination Committee, which includes the signatories to the MoU.

3.3. The Coordination Committee comprises the Trustees of Tazreen Claims Administration

Trust, including representatives of C&A Global, C&A Foundation, IndustriaALL Global

Union, Clean Clothes Campaign, Executive Commissioner and 2 members of TCA

staff (Barrister Kawsar and Md Anar) as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. At a

later point, the representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment of the

Government of Bangladesh joined the Tazreen Coordination Committee. The

Coordination Committee receives reports from the Executive Commissioner and

oversees the administration of the TCA in order to provide payments to the Tazreen

fire victims and their families in a transparent and equitable manner according to their

losses, as well as access to medical care for victims in need.

3.4. A separate Tazreen Steering Committee was formed with the representatives of the

relevant local organizations to provide advice to the Executive Commissioner on

various issues. The members of the Steering Committee are:

-Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS),

-Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA),

-Caritas,

-National Garments Workers Foundation (NGWF),

-Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST),

-Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS),

-Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers' Federation (BGIWF) and

-Activists Anthropologist.

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The representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment of the Government of

Bangladesh also joined the Tazreen Steering Committee at a later stage.

3.5. TCA has been operating with the regular support and assistance from ILO and from the

Government of Bangladesh through the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE).

TCA has also received valuable assistance from BGMEA and Caritas.

3.6. The claim intake operation of TCA was done in two phases- in the first phase, TCA

received and registered Tazreen deceased and missing claims; in the second phase,

TCA received and registered injured claims. TCA started receiving and registering

deceased and missing claims from 5 October 2015.

3.7. In order to facilitate the payment of compensation awards to the claimants, TCA made

necessary arrangements with Dutch Bangla Bank DBB) to open bank accounts free of

charge for all of them. Thanks to the presence of the DBB staff along the claim

processing team at the TCA office during the period of receiving and registering the

claims, a bank account was opened an became operative the same day that a claim

was registered for each injured worker and for each family member of a

deceased/missing,

4. STATISTICS OF RECEIVED DECEASED AND MISSING CLAIMS

4.1 TCA received and registered 113 deceased and missing claims. Out of these 113

claims, 60 were deceased claims. Initially, there were 54 missing claims. Out of these

54 missing claims, 43 workers’ were confirmed on the basis of the list provided by the

Ministry of Labor and Employment who have been confirmed and registered as

deceased with the assistance of DNA tests and marching. Remaining 10 claims are for

missing workers whose bodies are unidentified till to date, while the equivalent

unidentified bodies exist. However, the Executive Commissioner accepted these claims

for compensation on the basis of the BGMEA and Prime Minister’s List: a list of

Tazreen workers prepared on the basis of financial assistance provided by the Prime

Minister Office. TCA obtained this list from PMO through the Ministry of Labour and

Employment. This list includes names and addresses of deceased Tazreen fire

workers,and the amount received by their families from the Prime Minister Office. In

addition to the above-mentioned list, the surrounding circumstances and circumstantial

evidence was taken into account.

4.2 The number of claims received from dependents of the deceased or missing is 416.

The total number of accounts opened for claimants by Dutch Bangla Bank is 391. The

difference in numbers is due to the multiple deceased claims in a single family (More

information is given in Paragraph 16.1 below).

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The table below provides a breakdown of the number of claims filed with

TCA:

S/L STATUS OF VICTIMS NUMBER OF CLAIMS

1 Deceased 60

2 Missing 53

3 Number of dependents 416

4 Bank accounts opened 391

The status of claims reviewed and awarded is summarized in the table below:

Claim Reviewed and Awarded

Total Claims

Received Total Awarded

Deceased 60 60

Missing with DNA match 43 43

Missing without DNA

match 10 9

Total 113 112

5. ESTABLISHING A RELIABLE LIST OF DECEASED AND MISSING

WORKERS

5.1. TCA obtained 20 different lists on of Tazreen deceased and missing workers from

different organizations, namely, Caritas, BGMEA, Activist Anthropologist, BLAST,

BCWS, NGWF and RISE. Aside from these lists, TCA also obtained

- A list from the Prime Minister’s office of 109 deceased and missing workers

who received financial assistance from the Prime Minister Welfare Fund;

- A list of 58 workers, whose dead bodies were found, from Dhaka Deputy

Commissioner’s office;

- A list from MoLE of 43 missing workers whose DNA matched.

5.2. TCA prepared a master list of 136 deceased and missing workers by consolidating the

lists from various sources. However, the master list included duplicate names,

inadvertent inclusion of injured workers, workers whose family members could not be

contacted by phone, and one family member who refused to register the claim with

TCA.

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5.3. TCA carefully review all the lists, created a computerized master list of all the names

on all the lists, and consultation with the Coordination Committee on the criteria for

establishing an initial reference list of eligible claimants. Given the extensive work done

by Caritas, BGMEA, Activist Anthropologist and BLAST on the deceased and missing

workers, TCA considered these 4 lists along with the lists received from the Prime

Minister’s Office, District Commissioner office and MoLE as principal reference lists.

Thus, names which appeared in all these lists were considered to be eligible and

confirmed. In this way, TCA initially identified 114 claims to be confirmed. For the

remaining 22 names whose name appeared in one or two lists, TCA conducted further

verification and contacted all the members of the steering committee for further

information. After verification, the 22 remaining names were considered non-eligible

since they were either duplicates, or reported to be alive and/or injured workers.

6. ESTABLISHING A RELIABLE LIST OF INJURED WORKERS

6.1 Similarly, TCA obtained a number of lists on Tazreen injured workers from different

organizations. After compiling the injured workers from all the lists received from the

Prime Minister’s Office, BGMEA, Caritas, NGWF, BLAST and OSHE, the total number

of injured workers in TCA’s master list stands as 285. TCA has started to register the

injured claims in three phases:

Phases Number of workers

who will be contacted

for registration of

claims

Remarks

Phase I 90 These 90 workers are from PM office,

BGMEA, Caritas, NGWF and BLAST. All of

the workers in this category received

financial assistance of BDT 1 lac from

BGMEA. In addition, 13 of them received

BDT 50,000 from the Prime Minister Welfare

Fund.

Phase II 23 These 23 workers are from Caritas list.

Their names do not appear in the BGMEA

or other lists. For these 23 workers, Caritas

provided treatment and other support in the

form of either providing salary or vocational

training with seed money for business.

Phase III 84 These 84 workers are from BGMEA list.

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They were not included in the Caritas

program. None of them received any

financial assistance from the Prime

Minister’s fund and BGMEA except some

salaries from BGMEA.

6.2 In addition, there are 88 workers. All of them are from OSHE list. For these remaining

88 workers, more verification and confirmation were required. These 88 workers from

OSHE, however, was eventually not accepted after verification mainly due to lack of

required information.

6.3 After registration of the phase I injured workers, the claims of the remaining workers

are going through an additional screening, including a thorough interview with each of

the workers over the phone in order to confirm their status as Tazreen workers and

their presence in the factory on the date of fire. After this preliminary stage, the

concerned claimants are being provided appointments for their claims registration.

7. TAZREEN DATABASE 7.1 TCA entered into a contract with Technohaven Company Ltd (the “Technohaven”) for

database amendment and IT support in claim processing including designing necessary database and software. As part of the contract, Technohaven supplied hardware necessary for this purpose.

7.2 Tazreen database was mainly based on the Rana Plaza Claims processing

application designed by Technohaven on the basis of the Claim Form and specifications provided by the Executive Commissioner, and incorporating the VBA tool that was provided by ILO. However, a number of changes and modifications were to be made in both the database and VBA tool in order to make the Rana Plaza database more useful and functional for the needs of Tazreen Claims Administration. The main features of the Tazreen database and software is as follow:

7.2.1 Claim Form: A tailor-made Claim Form, prepared and modified by the

Executive Commissioner, containing information on injured, deceased, missing workers of Tazreen, their employment, dependents, injury, etc. and listing the evidence required and provided were incorporated into the Tazreen software application.

7.2.2 Claims Submission: This stage includes:

-filling out the claim form with the assistance of the paralegals, -providing minimum evidence as to the work relationship, salary of the worker, family relations (for deceased and missing) - Medical assessment provided by TCA (for injured) -Opening of bank account

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The software application records the claims submission including the results of medical assessments.

7.2.3 Review, Verification and Authorization: The claims go through a process of review, verification and final authorization (and additional checks as necessary) by claim reviewers as per procedures laid down by the Executive Commissioner. This process includes: -Calculation of compensation for each claim and each beneficiary with the helpof the VBA tool; and -implementing the supplement amounts to increase awards.

The application records the results of the review, verification and final authorization of compensation claims. Stages subsequent to the issuance of awards, including notice of awards, and the correction of factual errors are also recorded in the application.

7.2.4 Disbursement of awards and medical care: All disbursements of awards

and medical care against claims are recorded in the application. Multiple disbursements may be made against each claim in parts, but this was avoided as funds were available for full payment. In case of deceased victims the application records the particulars of the recipients and the relationship with the victim.

7.3 The following hardware was used in claims processing of Tazreen fire:

Hardware Specification

SI No. Item Specification Qty.

1 HP/Dell Entry Level Fault Tolerant Server (with Monitor) 1

2 1 KVA Online UPS (1 Hour Backup) 1

3 HP Scanjet G4010 Photo Scanner 2

4 External HDD: 1 TB USB Hard Drive as backup 1

8. PRE-REGISTRATION COUNSELLING AND ADVICE TO THE

CLAIMANTS

8.1 After selecting the confirmed eligible deceased and missing workers, TCA team, in the

first phase, contacted the families of the deceased and missing workers by phone one

by one for providing pre-registration advice and information, as to the documents

needed for registering their claims. TCA started providing pre-registration advice to the

families of the deceased and missing worker from September 2015. In the second

phase, the team further contacted the claimants to provide them fixed appointments to

receive their documents and register their claims. On the date so fixed for the interview

and registration, the claim was received and registered.

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8.2 TCA also contacted the injured workers and provided pre-counseling advice on the

information and documents which are required to be provided by them at the time of

registration.

9. CLAIM REGISTRATION AND CUT OFF DATE

9.1 Following the pre-registration counseling, TCA commenced receiving and registering

confirmed deceased and missing claims from 5 October 2015 at the GIZ IS office. Until

19 November 2015, the daily claim intake for deceased and missing workers was

limited to 3. The daily claim intake increased to 6 after TCA moved to its own rented

office at Road-49, Gulshan-2, Dhaka - 1212.

9.2 The claim registration process included preliminary screening of the documents

submitted, completing claim forms, and obtaining copies of the required documents.

Information received at the time of registration is saved electronically in the database.

Bank accounts were opened and ATM cards were issued in the name of each of the

claimants and dependents on the same day.

9.3 Under the supervision of the Executive Commissioner, each claimant was first met by

the TCA paralegals in charge of the registration of claims, and after completion of the

registration, by a claim reviewer, who reviewed the registered claim. In cases of

unusual issues or where paralegals were in doubt on how to proceed they consulted

right away with the claim reviewers or the Executive Commissioner. The idea was to

ensure that the TCA team was in possession of all the information required to process

the claim, without a need to go back to the claimant again.

9.4 In some occasions, the family members used the opportunity to raise some internal

problems (e.g., that one family member was trying to take all the award money and

deprive others; or a dispute between a remarried husband and his in-laws over the

money or children). In one case, a family member came back the day after registration

to complain about her son having taken her bank card. While these issues were

outside the claims processing, the team and the Executive Commissioner tried where

possible to resolve these issues as well and to encourage the family members to agree

on some amicable arrangements.

9.5 In consultation and agreement with the Steering Committee, the deadline for claim

registration was set at 15 February 2016. However, there were some claims which

could not be registered by that date due to various difficulties faced by the claimants.

These claimants were in contact with TCA well before the expiry of the claim

registration deadline. TCA arranged claim registration for these claimants on 8 March

2016 at CRP, Savar.

Final EC Report 18


9.6 In addition, a total of 174 injured workers of Tazreen fire was registered with TCA. On

average, 8 injured workers were invited and registered per day and their medical

assessment were done on the same by a qualified medical assessment team from

Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) at TCA office, Gulshan.

9.7 In total 287 claims from the injured workers and the dependents of the deceased and

missing workers were registered with TCA for compensation. A summary of the total

registered claims is provided in the table below:

SL Category Number of Claims Number of

Beneficiaries

1 Deceased 103 378

2 Missing 10 38

3 Injured 174 174

Total 287 590

10. REVIEW OF CLAIMS AND VERIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS

10.1 All the submitted claims have gone through a process of review, verification and final

approval by the Claims Reviewers and EC. The review of the compensation claims of

the deceased, missing and injured workers comprised following steps:

Review of the documents submitted with the claims;

Verifying information provided by the claimants at the time of registering

claims;

Examining the eligibility of the dependents;

Verifying the employment records of the worker;

Verifying that the claim is related to Tazreen fire accident; in case of a

deceased claim and missing claim, required documents include the proof

of dead-body transfer or DNA profile matching report.

10.2 The number of reviewed deceased and missing claims is 113. Out of 113, the

breakdown of authorized claims are as follows:

Authorized deceased claims 101

Authorized missing claims 9

Claims with non-eligible dependents 2

Not found eligible for compensation 1

Final EC Report 19


11. CALCULATION OF COMPENSATION

11.1 After reviewing and verifying all the information and documents submitted, upon

satisfaction of TCA that the claim is eligible, TCA calculated the amount of the

compensation for the dependents of the deceased and missing workers and injured

claimants. In calculating the compensation, TCA principally used ILO designed VBA

tool which has been modified as per TCA requirements. For a deceased or missing

claim, the VBA tool is programmed to take into account the age and salary of the

worker, his/her survivor benefits, number and age of dependents, among other factors.

The calculation of compensation claim was conducted in three phases- in the first

phase, the total amount of compensation was calculated; in the second phase, the

financial assistance received from the Prime Minister and BGMEA (which was mostly

BDT 700,000 in case of a deceased and missing claim) was deducted. In the third

phase, upon agreement of the Coordination Committee, it was decided that the surplus

funds in TCA Trust would be re-distributed among the claimants by:

a) Not making any deductions for injured workers; and

b) Reducing the deduction for deceased and missing workers to BDT

300,000 instead of BDT 700,000 they had previously received.

Hence, for the deceased and missing dependents, the financial assistance received

from the Prime Minister’s Office and other donors was partially deducted (BDT

300,000) from the total amount compensation calculated under ILO Convention 121.

12. DETERMINING FACTOR IN CALCULATION OF COMPENSATION

Salary of the Deceased and Missing Workers

12.1 One of the essential bases for calculating the compensation claim is the salary of the

deceased and missing workers. In case of deceased and missing claims, TCA relies on

the list of salaries of 99 deceased and missing workers which BGMEA provided. For

the remaining 14 claims, TCA determined the salary either on the basis of the proof of

salary, wherever available or on the basis of the designation of the worker’s job as

provided in the factory ID card or the appointment letter. In the absence of any proof,

the salary was determined on the basis of minimum wage requirement of the

designated job, as fixed by the Government in 2010 and updated in 2013.

Date of Calculation

12.2 For the deceased and missing claims, the date of calculation of compensation started

from 24 November 2012, i.e. date of event. Taking this date was in favourable to

claimants as the salaries received previously by others (e.g., salaries paid by C & A

Foundation, Fung (1966) Foundation , and BGMEA) where not taken into account and

Final EC Report 20


not deducted. An exception occurred when the son or daughter of the deceased and

missing worker was born subsequent to the date of event. In TCA there was only one

claim where the wife of the deceased was pregnant at the time of the fire and the

daughter of the deceased was born in February 2013. In calculating the compensation

of the above claim, the daughter’s date of birth was taken as the start date of

calculation for loss of income for her.

Eligible dependents

12.3 The dependents of deceased or missing victims are eligible claimants for the

compensation awards. According to the rules applied by Rana Plaza Commissioners,

based on criteria of Bangladesh Labour Law with necessary amendments, (and

reconfirmed in TCA by the Executive Commissioner),a dependent is someone who

meets the following criteria:

1. Children up to 25 years old (irrespective of their marital status)

2. Widow/Widower

3. Parents

4. Other dependents including:

Unmarried daughter, widowed daughter, minor brother, minor sister, unmarried

sister, widowed sister, widowed daughter in law, minor child of a deceased son if

his father was not alive, minor child of deceased daughter if his father was not

alive, paternal/maternal grandfather if his/her parents were not alive at the time of

his death, paternal/maternal grandmother if his/her parents were not alive at the

time of his death, illegitimate son and illegitimate unmarried daughter and

remarried widows.

12.4 Following the practice of Rana Plaza Claims Administration, exceptions can be made

for those relatives who do not qualify as dependents under the above criteria, if they

can prove they were partially or wholly dependent on the income of the deceased or

missing person at the time of their death or missing, provided that there is no other

eligible dependent for the concerned deceased or missing worker.

12.5 According to the criteria applied by RPCA rule, remarriage of husband after the event

is considered as a ground for excluding the husband from compensation. In such a

case the loss of income award is calculated and paid to other members of the family,

i.e., children and parents.

Age of the deceased/missing/injured worker and dependents

12.6 The age of the deceased or missing and the dependents are determined by national

identity card or birth certificate which is submitted by the claimants at the time of

registration of their claims.

Final EC Report 21


13. REVIEW OF MISSING CLAIMS

13.1 There are two types of missing claims registered with TCA: missing workers with DNA

matched and missing workers with no DNA matched. The missing workers with DNA

matched are registered as deceased. The number of these workers is 43 as confirmed

by MoLE.

13.2 There are 10 other missing claims where the body could not be identified through DNA

testing. These 10 claims are registered as missing.

13.3 In reviewing missing claims with no DNA matched, there were three main elements

considerations-

(i) whether the workers received financial assistance from PM Office and

BGMEA;

(ii) (ii) inclusion in different lists; and

(iii) (iii) supporting documents submitted by the claimants.

13.4 Out of 10 claims, 8 missing workers’ families received full BDT 7 lacs as financial

assistance from the Prime Minister’s Office, BGMEA and others. These 8 missing

workers appeared in lists of PM Office, BGMEA, Caritas and Activist Anthropologist.

The remaining missing persons did not receive any financial assistance from PM and

BGMEA.

13.5 Among the remaining two allegedly missing persons one was a woman (hereinafter

referred to as “X”), who was on CARITAS and Activist Anthropologist lists. A woman

claiming to be X’s mother registered the claim with TCA. It was alleged that X was

missing since the Tazreen Factory Fire. Furthermore, the purported brother brought

two different women to TCA office presenting them to be X’s mother at two different

dates. TCA requested CARITAS to verify the matter. CARITAS carried out its own

investigation and reported that this was a fraudulent claim as the alleged brother never

had any sister named X. CARITAS asked TCA to reject the claim. The claimant was

also unable to provide any documentary evidence to show that X worked at Tazreen.

Also no one had received any financial assistance from the PM Fund and/or BGMEA in

this case. TCA sought information from MoLE regarding these names. The information

provided by MoLE also shows no trace of financial assistance being provided for X.

TCA therefore considered this case a non-eligible claim for compensation.

13.6 The other missing claim was accepted for compensation. This missing worker’s name

appeared in the lists from BGMEA, Caritas, Activist Anthropologist, NGWF and RISE.

Caritas also included her family in their program. However, there was no information on

her previous financial assistance received from the PMO. TCA requested MoLE

through a letter dated 1 February 2016 to verify financial assistance provided by the

PMO. In light of the information received from MoLE dated 6 April 2016, this missing

Final EC Report 22


claim did not receive any financial assistance from the Prime Minister’s Office and

BGMEA, and therefore no deduction was made from their total award. Her information

on financial assistance can be found in SL No. 4 of Annex 1 below.

13.7 With regard to compensation claim of missing Tazreen workers, special consideration

was also given to the litigation brought before the High Court by a number of eminent

Bangladeshi lawyers: Writ Petition No. 4467 of 2013 concerning 26 missing persons.

This case is now pending before the High Court Division of Supreme Court of

Bangladesh. The names of the abovementioned missing workers were submitted by

the petitioners and the Hon’ble Court directed the Government to provide

compensation to these workers’ families through DNA tests. As per Court’s order, the

Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Police conducted verification of

each worker and arranged DNA tests. On the basis of the above Compliance Report of

CID, the Government provided financial assistance to 8 of the missing workers.

13.8 Regarding the documents submitted by the dependents of missing workers, almost all

claimants provided proof of employment with few exceptions. There were 2 claimants

who could not submit any proof of employment in which case confirmation was sought

from either Caritas or BGMEA, or both. Other than this, the main documents submitted

by the claimants for these claims are: proof of identity of the worker, General Diary

Entry with the local police reporting the person as missing, copy of cheques or bank

statement regarding financial assistance received from PM Office and BGMEA, etc.

13.9 One deceased claim had to be recalculated with an additional deduction of BDT

100,000 on account of previous financial assistance received by the family of the

deceased. More information of these four cases regarding financial assistance

obtained from MoLE is annexed as Annex 1.

14. DEDUCTION OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE RECEIVED PREVIOUSLY

BY CLAIMANTS FROM PRIME MINISTER WELFARE FUND

14.1 In calculating the payable amount to eligible claimants, initially the financial assistance

previously received from the Prime Minister’s Office (which was generally BDT 700,000

in case of a deceased and missing claim in Tazreen fire) was deducted by TCA from

the total calculated amount of compensation. For injured claimants, a deduction of BDT

100,000 was made where the injured claimants had received previous assistance of at

least BDT 100,000.

14.2 However, subsequently in approving a proposal from the Executive Commissioner, the

Coordination Committee took the decision to redistribute the remaining funds by

recalculating the compensation with no deductions for the injured claimants, and with

Final EC Report 23


deduction of BDT 300,000 only (instead of BDT 700,000)for deceased and missing

claimants. The recalculation of all claims was carried out by TCA accordingly.

14.3 Out of 114 deceased workers from BGMEA and PM office list, families of 108

deceased and missing workers had received full BDT 700,000 per family as financial

assistance from the Prime Minister’s Office, BGMEA and others. There is 1 deceased

claim, where the dependents received BDT 300,000 from the Prime Minister’s office. In

this case, BDT 300,000 was deducted from the total award. In one claim the

dependents did not receive any financial assistance from the Prime Minister’s Office

and BGMEA and in another claim, an injured worker received BDT 50,000 from Prime

Minister’s Office as an injured and subsequently died; in these cases, no deductions

were made from their total award. In general, deductions were made only where there

were proofs that payments had been made by the Prime Minister Office.

14.4 In total, TCA deducted BDT 32,700,000 from the 112 eligible deceased and missing

claims on account of the amounts paid by the Government. The table below shows a

summary of deductions:

SL Victim’s Status Number of Claims Deducted Amounts Paid by

Government of Bangladesh (BDT)

1 Deceased 103 30,300,000

2 Missing 9 2,400,000

Total 112 32,700,000

15. INJURED WORKERS WHO DIED SUBSEQUENTLY

15.1 There are 2 deceased claims where the workers died a few months after the fire

accident. One of them died in March 2014 and other died in July 2014. Both of them

died of Cancer. Upon reviewing the medical records submitted by the claimants in

these two cases, it appears that both workers had been ill since the date of event and

never recovered since then. Under the circumstances, and to assist their families, it

was presumed that their deaths could be related to the Tazreen fire. For these 2

deceased claims, the date of calculation was kept at 24 November 2012, i.e. the date

of event. One of them had received BDT 50,000 and another one did not receive any

financial assistance from Prime Minister’s Office; but in accordance with the

Coordination Committee direction no deduction was made from their total

compensation.

Final EC Report 24


16. MULTIPLE DECEASED CLAIMS IN A SINGLE FAMILY

16.1 There are 6 cases where there are multiple deceased/missing workers from the same

family. In such cases, for every deceased/missing worker from the same family, a

separate claim is registered and calculated. However, one bank account is opened in

the name of a single person if s/he has multiple claims. For instance, there is one case

where 2 dependents have three claims since they lost their father, mother and brother

in the fire. In another case, the claimant lost her 3 daughters. In both cases, three

separate claims have been registered for these three deaths and missing incidents,

respectively.

17. NON-ELIGIBLE CLAIMS

17.1 A claim is non-eligible when the claimant cannot prove and the investigation of TCA

does not confirm that the deceased/ missing was a worker of Tazreen, or when the

claimant does not have any blood relationship with the deceased/ missing worker.

There is 1 (one) missing claim where the claimant could not establish neither blood

relationship with the missing worker nor work relationship of the person with factory.

There are also 2 (two) injured claims where the claimants could not establish their work

relationship with factory. The Executive Commissioner has thoroughly reviewed these

claims before they were considered as non-eligible. A note on the non-eligible claims is

annexed herewith as Annex 2.

18. NON-ELIGIBLE DEPENDENTS

18.1 Non-eligible dependant is a child or sibling of a deceased or missing worker because

of his/her age (for children above 25 years and for sibling above 18 years) is not

eligible for compensation. There are 3 claims (with 7 dependents) where the

dependants of the deceased or missing workers did not receive any compensation

because of their age barrier but among these 2 dependents (1 son and 1 daughter) of

one claim are entitled to a lump sum amount on special consideration and remaining 5

dependents of 2 claims are not entitled to any amount. The Executive Commissioner

considered those claims on a case by case basis, and have determined that-

(i) In one claim comprising 4 elder brothers of the deceased, the dependents are

not entitled to any compensation on the ground that all the dependents are

financially solvent and they were never dependent on the deceased income

even before the event.

Final EC Report 25


(ii) In other one claim 1 dependent (sister of deceased) among 4 dependents

(Mother, Brother and two sisters) is not entitled to any compensation on the

ground that she is above 18 years old and also married.

(iii) In another claim, comprising 1 son and 1 daughter of the deceased, they

should be provided BDT 500,000 on the ground of their economic

dependency. As to the apportionment, the Executive Commissioner

determined that the daughter will receive BDT 300,000 and the son will

receive BDT 200,000.

A more detailed report on Non-Eligible Dependents is enclosed herewith as Annex 3.

19. OTHER EXCEPTIONAL CASES

19.1 The wife of a deceased worker was unable to register her claim along with other

dependents of the deceased due to her physical and mental illnesses. It was not

possible to bring her to TCA or to get her to visit any bank to open an account for her. i.

Caritas has been providing support to her family since December 2012. As she was in

desperate need of the funds for her treatment and care and she was a genuine

claimant who was unable to realize her claim, TCA registered her claim in her absence.

TCA received information from Caritas as well as deceased other family members on

her condition. It appeared that the only way to provide her with assistance would be

through an intermediary / third party.

19.2 TCA sent a member of staff (a claim reviewer) to observe her condition and obtained a

medical certificate issued by Caritas’s Psychosocial Counsellor to confirm the state of

her physical and mental condition before disbursing the funds to any third party.

Accordingly, with the assistance of Caritas, a meeting was arranged in Rangpur on 27

April 2016 where the locals of her village, relatives, a local government representative

(Union Parishad member) among others were invited to agree as to the best method of

disbursing the funds allocated to her as a result of her husband’s death. She was

observed by TCA staff and reported as described that she was in a poor state both

physically and mentally.

19.3 On the basis of the report from Rangpur meetings, and following a number of

subsequent meetings with Caritas in TCA office in Dhaka, an arrangement was

finalized on 28 June 2016 with Caritas for the transfer of the awarded amount of BDT

317,331 to her. A letter of arrangement dated 28 June 2016 is annexed as Annex 4.

Final EC Report 26


20. REGISTRATION OF CLAIMS AFTER DEADLINE OF 15 FEBRUARY

2016

20.1 The agreed deadline with the Steering Committee for registering claims was 15

February 2016. Prior to the deadline 13 injured claimants and 1 deceased claimant

was in contact with TCA, but could not be registered as a time could not be mutually

agreed. TCA invited these claimants to attend CRP, Savar on 8 March 2016 for

registration of their claims. A total of 9 injured claimants attended CRP, Savar and all 9

claims were registered. Only one of these 9 claimants was asked to return to TCA with

relevant documents for further verification/authentication of the claim.

20.2 One claimant, the mother of a deceased Tazreen worker was unable to attend CRP

Savar on that day. TCA was in regular contact with her during this period and arranged

for her to visit TCA office on 27 March 2016 to register her claim. Her claim was

successfully registered on that day (details of her award are stated later in this report).

20.3 In addition, TCA received 9 new requests from allegedly Tazreen injured workers for

registering their claims with TCA in April 2016 for compensation, after the deadline of

15 February 2016. These requests were thoroughly verified by the TCA staff and

reviewed by the Claims Reviewers and the Executive Commissioner. These requests

were not accepted after the completion of the verification process, because apart from

the expiry of the deadline for registration, the names of the injured workers were not

found in any of the approved lists (BGMEA, Prime Minister Office, Caritas, Activist

Anthropologist, BLAST, etc) as Tazreen workers. Therefore, there was no ground to

accept those requests at a late stage of the Tazreen programme, which could lead to

open a floodgate of new requests. Nevertheless, these 9 new requests were

addressed separately and they were informed by TCA through individualized letters

explaining the reasons for non-acceptances of their requests.

21. REVIEW OF THE INJURED WORKERS

21.1 A total of 174 injured workers were registered with TCA for compensation. For injured

workers, salary and the level of injury sustained from the fire are the two important

piece of information to determine the awards.

Employment records

21.2 In most cases, the injured workers were able to provide employment documents like

appointment letter/joining letter/factory ID card/Time card/Punch card/Pay slip/monthly

salary slip etc. In addition, BGMEA provided TCAwith a list containing employment

Final EC Report 27


information. This list was helpful for ascertaining salary for the workers who lost their

employment documents due the Tazreen fire.

Medical assessment

21.3 The second important factor is the level of injury sustained due to the fire. For this,

necessary arrangements were made with the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the

Paralysed (CRP) for conducting medical assessment of the Tazreen injured workers. A

medical team including qualified medical practitioners consisting of doctor, therapist

(occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech & language therapist), psychologist,

nurse, medical specialist and medical investigation was formed to carry out the medical

assessment of Tazreen injured workers. The medical assessment was commenced on

2 December 2015. It took place at the TCA office. On average, each day 8 injured

workers were assessed by CRP on the same day after registering their claims with

TCA. The medical assessment was completed by the end of January 2016. Apart from

assessing the injured workers’ level of physical and psychological functional limitation,

the CRP team was requested to assess injured workers’ immediate and long term

medical need. A specific form was prepared for this purpose and incorporated in the

database to facilitate the planning of the long-term medical care for disabled workers

who may need to continue treatment. Medical assessment of the injured workers is

being conducted with the presence of 2 medical experts from Caritas.

21.4 An assessment report for each injured worker was issued by CRP mentioning the

disability percentage (DLP) of an injured worker. DLP refers to the level of injury

suffered by a worker from an accident outlining, in percentage, the level of disability of

an injured worker from medical perspective. In addition, national ID or birth certificate

was also used for the identification purpose of an injured worker of Tazreen fire.

22. POSSIBLE REMAINING CLAIMS

22.1 There are 7 potential injured workers from the TCA master list who could not be

contacted as their phone numbers, mentioned in the list, were switched off. TCA

planned to send them letters by registered postal services inviting them to TCA office

for the purpose of registering their claims. But this could not be possible as their

complete postal addresses were not found. TCA had a series of meetings with the

members of the Steering Committee asking for their assistance to locate those

remaining injured claims. However, despite their efforts, these 7 injured workers were

not found and could not be located. It is likely that these 7 injured workers had

changed their phone numbers and/or moved from their residences where they used to

live at the time of event. While it is surprising that these workers did not file claims, it

seems that they did not incur serious injuries.

Final EC Report 28


23. NOTICE OF AWARDS (NOA)

23.1 As agreed with the Coordination Committee (CC), each claimant received a Notice of

Awards on his/her claim. The NOA mentions the result of the review of the claim, the

amounts of previously received funds that are deducted from deceased and missing

claims only, and the share of each of the dependents from the total awarded

compensation. NOAs were sent to each dependent of deceased or missing workers

and injured workers through Government Postal Services. In addition, each claimant

was briefed regarding NOAs through individual telephone calls by TCA team. A

sample NOA for deceased/missing claim and for injured claim is annexed as Annex 5.

Deceased and Missing

23.2 In the first instance, NOAs for 110 deceased and missing claims were issued in

January 2016. Subsequently, with the decision of the Coordination Committee to

redistribute the surplus funds among the claimants by deducting BDT 300,000 instead

of BDT 700,000, the TCA claim reviewers recalculated all the deceased and missing

claims to reflect the new level of deduction. NOAs were re-issued for 108 deceased

and missing claims during March 2016.The remaining NoAs were issued for on 25 April

2016. In total NOAS were issued and distributed for 113 deceased and missing claims

Injured

23.3 NOAs for injured claimants were issued between March and April 2016. A total of 174

NOAs were posted to the injured claimants. Claimants were allowed a period of 15

days to make any written request for correction (details on requests for correction

below).A report on distribution of NoAs is annexed as Annex 6.

24. REQUESTS FOR CORRECTION

24.1 In January 2016, the NOAs were issued to claimants of deceased and missing victims,

they were allowed up to 15 days to submit written requests for correction of their

NOAs.A total of 11 written requests were made after the previous batch of NOAs were

last posted on 28.01.2016. The requests for correction ranged from requests to cancel

the deduction of BDT 700,000 to requests for including or excluding certain

dependents from the award, as well as correcting inaccurately recorded relationships

of the claimant with the deceased. TCA considered the requests and took steps to

address the matters as necessary. TCA also wrote to each applicant informing them of

the outcome of their application for correction.

24.2 When NOAs were subsequently re-issued for claimants of deceased and missing

victims in March 2016, the claimants were not given any scope for requesting

correction again as they were previously given the opportunity (during the January

Final EC Report 29


2016 issuance). Therefore, there were no requests for correction from claimants of

deceased and missing victims after NOAs were issued in March 2016.

24.3 TCA started receiving requests for corrections through letters from injured claimants

from 28 March 2016. A total of 71 such requests were received by TCA as of 18 April

2016 (some of the claimants wrote letters for correction, some attended TCA office

personally to make application for correction and some did both). All the applicants for

corrections of awards were invited by TCA to CRP, Savar to carry out their medical re-

assessments. Medical re-assessment was arranged for them in order to determine

whether the first medical assessment was done correctly or not and to reflect the latest

findings in the new medical assessment report. After completion of the medical re-

assessment and the consequent recalculations of the awards, all 71 workers who

requested correction of their awards were sent letters informing them the outcome of

their applications (more on medical reassessment below) together with the award page

of the re-issued NOA. A tabular representation of the issuance of letters for request of

correction is annexed as Annex 7.

25. MEDICAL REASSESSMENT

25.1 Following the issuacne of Notic of Aawards, TCA received a total of 71 written requests

for correction of awards from the injured workers. All 71 injured workers were invited

for medical reassessment, at Centre for Rehabilitation for the Paralysed(CRP)Savar

and 66 of the injured workers attended the medical reassessment.

25.2 The medical reassessments were carried out in April 2016 at CRP, Savar by a team of

qualified medical practitioners of CRP, Savar with the presence of TCA staff. The

Claims Reviewers and the Executive Commissioner reviewed the new medical

assessment reports issued by CRP. Out of 66 claims, awards increased after medical

reassessment in 32 claims, and remained unchanged in 34 claims.

25.3 All applicants were informed by TCA through individualized letters and direct phone

calls, informing them of the results of their corrections of awards.

26. SOURCE OF FUNDING

26.1 The TCA received separate funds from donors for payments for compensation to the

victims, and for the administrative costs. The funds were received by TCA in two

currencies, i.e., USD and Euro.

Fund receipt for payment of compensation

26.2 The total funds required to pay awards, and to provide long term medical care, for

injured workers from the Tazreen fire was estimated by TCA at approximately USD 2.5

Final EC Report 30


million. The required fund was contributed by C&A Foundation (USD 1,000,000), Fung

(1906) Foundation Ltd (USD 1,000,000), BRAC USA (USD 250,000), KiKTextilien UND

Non Food G (USD 150,000) and EI Corte Ingles S. A. (USD 100,000).

A summary of funds from donors is provided in the table below in USD:

Date Donors Amount (USD)

15.12.2015 BRAC USA 250,000-

22.01.2016

and

01.04.2016

EL CORTE INGLES S.A. - 100,000

28.01.2016

KIK TEXTILIEN UND NON

FOOD G - 150,000.00

23.03.2016

FUNG (1906) FOUNDATION

LTD 1000,000-

24.03.2016 C & A FOUNDATION 1000,000-*

Total 2,500,000

* C&A Foundation paid USD 700,000 in Euro, and the remaining USD 300,000 with

the agreement of TCA is reserved for long term medical care for Tazreen injured

workers.

Administrative costs

26.3 In addition, C&A Foundation covered the administrative and running costs of TCA

separately, so that 100% of the money from donors went directly to victims and their

families.

27. AUTHORISATION OF PAYMENTS

Deceased and Missing

27.1 The authorization of payments for deceased and missing claims was given by the

Coordination Committee at its meeting dated 15 March 2016 based on the submission

notes dated 13 March 2016. In the said meeting a total award of BDT 109,196,762.00

equivalent to approximately USD 1.42 million was authorized for payments to the 112

deceased and missing claims. The submission notes presented to the Coordination

Committee for its authorization setting out the particulars of the payments are annexed

to this report as Annex 8.

Additional Deceased Claim

27.2 There was 1 dependent of a deceased worker who was in contact with TCA throughout

but unable to register her claim before the registration deadline. The claimant attended

TCA office on 27 March 2016 to register her claim. The claim was registered, reviewed

Final EC Report 31


and NOA issued on the same day. A new submission note was presented to the

Coordination Committee, and this successful claim, with an amount of BDT 750,000

(after deduction), was included in the payment list with the authorization of the

Coordination Committee. With the addition of this claim, the total number of deceased

and missing claims stood at 113. The submission notes presented to the Coordination

Committee for its authorization setting out the particulars of the payments are annexed

to this report as Annex 9.

Recalculation on the basis of MoLE Information

27.3 In light of the information received from MoLE in April 2016, two claims had to be

recalculated with revised deductions. One claimant, dependent of a deceased worker,

was initially awarded compensation with a deduction of BDT 200,000 based on TCA

records. This claim was recalculated with a deduction of BDT 300,000 based on the

BDT 300,000 previous financial assistance the claimant actually received. Therefore

the claimant’s final award was changed from BDT 850,000 to BDT 750,000. Another

claimant , also dependent of a deceased worker had been awarded compensation

initially with a deduction of BDT 50,000 for previously financial assistance. This

deceased worker was initially an injured victim who received BDT 50,000 financial

assistance for injuries but subsequently died. As TCA has not made any deductions

from the compensation of the injured workers, TCA recalculated this claim with no

deductions. As a result, the compensation for this claimant increased from BDT

1,000,000 to BDT 1,050,000. Revised Notice of Awards were issued to reflect the final

awarded amounts to claimants of both the recalculated claims.

27.4 At the Coordination Committee meeting dated 16 May 2016, the aforementioned

recalculations and addition of a deceased claim were brought to the attention of the

Coordination Committee members and the revised total awards for deceased and

missing claims of BDT 109,896,762.00 was noted by the members.

Injured

27.5 Based on the medical reassessments of the injured who request correction of their

awards, the claims were recalculated and re-reviewed. The recalculated and re-review

brought the final awards for all 174 injured claims to BDT 57,567,120.00 (equivalent to

approximately USD 747, 624.93). A submission note from the EC was sent to the

Coordination Committee on 9 May 2016 seeking authorization for payment of BDT

57,567,120.00 to the injured. The basis of the recalculations and the submission note

were explained to the Coordination Committee at its meeting dated 16 May 2016

where the members authorized payments for the said amount. A submission note for

authorization of payment for injured Tazreen workers is annexed as Annex 10.

Supplementary Amounts

27.6 The Tazreen Coordination Committee adopted the concept of the supplementary

payments that was used in the Rana Plaza compensation scheme. In Rana Plaza, the

minimum amount for a deceased worker was BDT 1,050,000, (including amounts

Final EC Report 32


received from the Prime Minister Welfare Fund and the BDT 50,000 initial Trust Fund)

and the minimum amount for an injured worker with “no injury” is BDT 105,000. The

minimum amount for the injured workers, however, was fixed depending the level of

their disability percentage in the following manners:

SL Disability Level Percentage Amount (BDT)

1 0% 105,000

2 1-3% 150,000

3 4-6% 250,000

4 7-9% 350,000

5 10-30% 450,000

6 31-100% 550,000

As a result, if the awarded amount is below the minimum threshold, then he or she is

entitled to receive additional amount to meet the agreed minimum amounts as

supplementary payments. Adopting the above criteria, TCA paid BDT 13,420,931.51 to

the dependents of deceased and missing workers and BDT 29,394,266.00 to injured

workers as supplementary payments. It should be noted that as because the funds

were available, the supplementary payments were included in the payments of awards.

The table below shows the actual awards and supplementary amounts paid to the

Tazreen claimants.

FOR DECEASED AND MISSING

Actual Awards (BDT) 96,475,830.00

Supplement amount (BDT) 13,420,931.51

Total 109,896,761.51

FOR INJURED WORKERS

Actual amount (BDT) 28,172,854.00

Supplement amount (BDT) 29,394,266.00

Total 57,567,120.00

28. PAYMENTS MADE

28.1 Deceased: claims were filed by the dependents of 103 Tazreen deceased workers. As

authorized by the Coordination Committee, the amount awarded and paid to 373

dependents of the 103 deceased is total BDT 99,358,890 (approximately USD

1,282,050.19).

Final EC Report 33


28.2 Missing: claims were filed by the dependents of 10 Tazreen missing workers. The

amount awarded and paid to 37 dependents of the 9 missing is total BDT 10,537,872

(approximately USD 135,972.54).

28.3 Injured: claims were filed by 174 Tazreen injured workers. The amount awarded and

paid to 172 injured is total BDT 57,567,120 (approximately USD 747,624.93).

28.4 In total, BDT 167,463,882 (equivalent to approximately USD 2.17 million), has

been paid out to 582 successful beneficiaries. The table below provides a summary

report of all payments made to 582 successful claimants:

S

L

Type of

Claims Claims

Eligibl

e

Claims

Non

Eligibl

e

Claims

Total

Depen

dents

Non

Eligible

Dependen

ts

Paymen

ts made

to the

depend

ents

BDT

1 Deceased 103 103 0 378 5 373 99,358,890

2 Missing 10 9 1 38 1 37 10,537,872

3 Injured 174 172 2 174 2 172 57,567,120

Total 287 284 3 590 8 582 167,463,88

2

29. ARRANGEMENTS FOR GOVERNMENT SAVINGS CERTIFICATES

(“SANCHAYAPATRA”) IN DHAKA AND RANGPUR

29.1 To start with, TCA annexed detailed information on government savings certificates to

each NOA. A brief summary was also provided with each NOA on the benefits of

different types of Sanchayapatra with examples of how much beneficiaries could

expect to earn every month in interest from the Sanchayapatra. Subsequently, TCA

contacted each claimant to explain the benefits of Sanchayapatra to them and survey

their interest in receiving part or whole of their awards in the form of Sanchayapatra.

29.2 The CC was informed at its meeting dated 15 March 2016 that Steering Committee

(SC) members including the representative from MoLE had emphasized the need to do

more towards assisting claimants to invest their awarded funds in savings certificates.

29.3 First the issue of sub-contracting this matter to a qualified organization was considered.

A qualified organization member of the Steering Committee was requested to provide a

proposal to arrange obtaining savings certificates for TCA claimants. The proposal was

Final EC Report 34


quickly received and briefly discussed at the CC meeting of 15 March. It was agreed

that the proposal was beyond TCA’s expected scope of work and would be a time-

consuming process that could delay the closing down of the TCA. As such, it was

agreed that separate arrangements would have to be made by TCA team directly to

obtain Sanchayapatra for the claimants.

29.4 TCA had detailed discussions with various banks (including Dutch Bangla Bank), the

Bangladesh Bank, the Department of National Savings, Caritas and the claimants in

order to finalize an arrangement to enable claimants to purchase Sanchayapatra. With

assistance from Caritas, TCA made arrangements in Rangpur whereby claimants

residing in the region (northern Bangladesh) could purchase Sanchayapatra. A total of

44 claimants in Rangpur showed interest to purchase Sanchayapatra of a combined

value of BDT 13,700,000 and 63 such claimants initially showed interest to purchase

the said certificates in Dhaka for a combined value of BDT 17,400,000. TCA liaised

with all the parties involved to arrange for the claimants to visit the bank on specified

dates and purchase the Sanchayapatra. Along with Caritas staff, a team of TCA staff

travelled to Rangpur, where 43 claimants were received on 18 April 2016 and

Sanchayapatra applications were completed in the presence of DBBL staff at Rangpur

Baptist Church. One claimant who could not attend on 18 April visited DBBL Rangpur

at a later date and completed the application. As per the agreement between TCA and

DBBL Rangpur, 44 claimants (dependents of deceased and missing workers) have

been successfully issued with Sanchayapatra for a total value of BDT 13,700,000

during May 2016.

29.5 In Dhaka, DBBL Motijheel agreed with TCA to receive approximately 10 claimants daily

whom they would assist to complete the Sanchayapatra application forms and issue

the Sanchayapatra on the very day. Between April and May, DBBL Motijheel issued 55

claimants with Sanchayapatra for a total value of BDT 15,900,000. However, 8

claimants out of the 63 subsequently refused to purchase Sanchayapatra and their

awards were accordingly transferred to their respective bank accounts instead of

procuring Sanchayapatra for them.

29.6 After the authorization of payments was received from the CC for the injured workers

on 16 May 2016, TCA arranged for the injured workers who were interested in

obtaining Sanchayapatra to do so. 15 injured workers showed interest to purchase

Sanchayapatra in Dhaka for a total value of BDT 4,900,000 and 9 injured workers in

Rangpur for a total value of BDT 2,100,000. Among them 5 injured from Dhaka and 2

injured from Rangpur subsequently were no longer interested in purchasing

Sanchayapatra with their awarded funds.

29.7 Finally, a total of 55 claimants of deceased and missing workers purchased

shanchaipatra amounting to BDT 15,900,000 and 10 injured workers purchased

shanchaipatra amounting to BDT 3,800,000 from Dhaka region. From Rangpur region,

44 claimants of deceased and missing workers purchased Shanchaipatra amounting to

Final EC Report 35


BDT 13,700,000 and 7 injured claimant purchased Shancaipatra amounting to BDT

1,700,000. In total, 116 claimants purchased Shanchaipatra amounting to BDT

35,100,000 from Dhaka and Rangpur region.

30. PRESS RELEASE

30.1 A final press release was issued on 1 July 2016 to the media together with background

information highlighting the details of payments of compensation made to Tazreen

workers by Tazreen Claims Administration. Earlier, on 18 November 2016 another

press release was issued describing the activities and status of Tazreen Claims

Administration. A copy of the press release is attached as Annex 11.

31. LONG TERM MEDICAL CARE

31.1 Long term medical care for injured workers is an important element of the Tazreen

programme as required under the ILO Convention 121. A total of 174 injured workers

registered with TCA for compensation. All injured workers were extensively medically

assessed (both physical and psychological) by the Center for the Rehabilitation of the

Paralysed (CRP) using the same criteria as in Rana Plaza. According to the CRP

medical assessment reports, 172 injured workers may require long term medical care

at various degrees, both physical and psychological treatments. Tazreen Coordination

Committee is committed to provide long term medical care for the Tazreen injured

workers and has allocated a separate budget of approximately USD 350,000 for this

purpose. Summary information on 172 injured workers including their disability level

percentage of both physical and psychological is attached as Annex 12.

31.2 Rana Plaza Coordination Committee (RPCC) at its 24th meeting dated 21 April 2016

decided on formation of a new trust for the purpose of facilitating provision of the long

term medical care to the less seriously injured workers (1-9% disability) of Rana Plaza

building collapse. The RPCC also authorized a tripartite Sub-Committee, composed of

representatives of the government, workers and employers, and the Executive

Commissioner to prepare necessary documentations and other proposals for formation

of trust and related issues. Tazreen Coordination Committee also decided to join the

new trust for the provision of long term medical care to 172 Tazreen injured workers

with separate funding.

31.3 The Sub-Committee held a meeting on 27 April 2016 and discussed on a draft trust

deed prepared by former RPCA staffs. After incorporating the amendments and

recommendations of the Sub-Committee, the draft trust deed was submitted to the

Final EC Report 36


RPCC together with a request from Tazreen Claims Administration (TCA) to join the

new trust with additional funding.

31.4 On 25th meeting of RPCC dated 24 May 2016, the RPCC supported the proposal of

including TCA with this new trust on the condition of the separate accountability and

reporting mechanisms. The RPCC observed that the new trust may also accept

additional arrangement to provide long term medical care to other than the Rana Plaza

injured workers (e.g., Tazreen Fashion fire workers, etc), provided that necessary

funds is made available to the trust in advance for medical costs and proportional

administrative and overhead costs. The long term medical care for the Tazreen

workers will therefore be managed by separate account(s).

31.5 The 26th meeting of RPCC originally planned for early June 2016 has been delayed for

administrative reasons, In the meantime there has been further discussions and

exchanges between the ILO and the Executive Commissioner to finalize the draft Trust

Deed and the participation of TCA. The final draft clearly includes 172 Tazreen workers

for long term medical treatment, and foresees a separate board of trustees and

separate accounting for it. It was also discussed with the ILO that. It is expected that

the process of registration of the trust will start soon and following the decisions of both

Rana Plaza and Tazreen Coordination Committees for transfer of funds to the new

Trust, the long term medical care programme will be provided to both Rana Plaza and

Tazreen injured workers through the new Trust.

31.6 At the suggestion of the Executive Commissioner, ILO is also considering how support

may be provided to the new trust at its initial and set up phase and in handling over a

USD 1 million from Rana Plaza Trust Fund and approximately USD 350,000 from TCA.

32. FINANCIAL COMPLIANCE AUDIT

32.1 An agreement was signed between TCA and A Qasem & Co. (the “Auditor”) on 1 June

2016 for the purpose of conducting a full compliance audit of TCA and its payments.

For doing so, the Auditors gained an overall understanding of the various activities as

outlined in the ToR dated 1 June 2016 including consultation with the TCA

management through several meetings with the Executive Commissioner and the staff

of TCA.

32.2 The Auditors conducted a walk through test to establish the payment work flow of

awards after endorsement and disbursement authorization by the CC and confirmed

that the disbursement of endorsed awards was made in accordance with the decisions

and instructions of the CC. The Auditors randomly selected an appropriate sample size

of dependents of deceased and missing and of injured workers from list of awards as

endorsed and recommended by the CC. The Auditors discussed directly with the

Final EC Report 37


concerned beneficiary the amount he/she received and that it corresponds to the

endorsed award and amounts deducted as decided by the CC. They also reviewed

administrative expenditures made that are in accordance with the agreed budget

including payroll costs.

32.3 Upon completion of audits, the Auditor concluded as follows:

“We found that TCA has complied, in all material respects, with the conditions of

disbursement of funds to the designated beneficiaries. We conclude that in total BDT

167,463,882 (equivalent to approximately USD 2.17 million) has been paid to claimants

for the awards issued. We have reviewed that all the administrative costs came

separately from C&A Foundation and expended through a separate account. We confirm

that our audit was conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards,

involving such test and procedures which were considered necessary and appropriate

for the purpose of our reporting.”(Page 17, Paragraph 5.0, Report on Compliance Audit

of the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust, dated 14 August 2016).

32.4 The full audit report is available on the Tazreen website at the following link:

33. CLOSING DOWN AND TRANSFER OF THE TCA DOCUMENTS

33.1 The TCA office was closed down formally on 30 June 2016. The contracts of the staff

were ended and TCA office was vacated and delivered to the owner on 3 July 2016. All

files of Tazreen Claims Administration were handed over to the National Archives of

Bangladesh for safe keeping in accordance with the decision of the Tazreen

Coordination Committee dated 27 June 2016. The National Archives is the depository

of national document heritage, official and non-official records, historical documents,

etc.

33.2 In addition, content of the database, software, etc were sent to National Achieves, with

a copy provided to C&A Foundation. Full list of payments (confidential due to names

and particulars of claimants) were also sent to National Achieves, C&A Foundation,

ILO Dhaka office and Ministry of Labour and Employment. A copy of the full list of

payments as well as originals and scanned copies of medical assessments of Tazreen

injured workers were provided to the new Trust for injured workers to facilitate their

work.

33.3 All office equipment (chair, table, steel cabinet, etc), IT items (laptop, printer, scanner,

etc), including Tazreen database Server, that were donated to or bought by Rana

plaza or Tazreen Claims Administration were donated and made available to the new

Final EC Report 38


Trust. Following the decision of the Coordination Committee, these equipment and

materials were moved to Savar Cantonment office for the use of new Trust for long

term medical care for both Rana Plaza and Tazreen Injured workers.

Signed

Mojtaba Kazazi


Tazreen Claims Administration

Final EC Report 39


Annexure

ANNEX 1: SUMMARY INFORMATION OF FOUR CASES ON FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

OBTAINED FROM MOLE

Sl Victim Name Status Financial assistance

received from PM Fund

and other sources

1 Mst. S

Died on 21 March

2014

0

2 Mst. A

Died on 13 July 2014

BDT 50,000 from PM

Fund as injured and BDT

100,000 from BGMEA as

injured

3 Mst. J

Deceased

BDT 200,000 from PM

Fund and BDT 100,000

from BGMEA.

4 Mst. As

Missing

0

*******

Final EC Report 40


ANNEX 2: NOTE ON TWO NON-ELIGIBLE INJUREDCLAIMS AND ONE NON-ELIGIBLE

MISSING CLAIM

A. Notes on Two Non-Eligible Injured Claims

Claimant Name : Sw@ A

Victim Name : Sw@ A

Date of birth : 10/11/1968 (Age 47 years)

Claims Type : Injured

Stated designation : Quality Inspector

Stated Factory Id : 1612

Stated Salary : 4200

Name from :

BGMEA Injured List : 114

NGWF Injured List : 132

Fact:

At the time of claim registration Sw said that she worked as A at the factory. She claimed

that there is an error in her NID Card and her other name is A. But after a series of questions

she admitted that A is her sister, and that she worked at Tazreen using her sister’s

documents/identity. Her sister is now working in a hospital as a nurse.

On the basis of her comments she was advised to bring her sister to TCA office with her job

related document and also an NOC from A stating that if Sw is awarded compensation from

TCA ,A does not have an objection. But she could not provide any documents. TCA tried

several times to communicate with A but she has not been answering her phone. The

principal reason for rejection is that no proof of employment could be shown by the claimant.

Final EC Report 41


Claimant Name : G

Victim Name : G

Date of birth : 31/08/1990 (Age 25 years)

Claims Type : Injured

Stated designation : Quality Inspector

Stated Salary : 4250

Name from :

BGMEA Injured List : 83

NGWF injured List : 16

OSHE Injured List : 170

Fact:

OSHE provided TCA the phone number of an injured worker namely G whose name is in

BGMEA Injured Worker List (sl-83). This injured worker received one lac from BGMEA. After

receiving the phone number, TCA contacted the injured worker and invited him to register

his claim on 03/02/2016. On the day of registration, after proper inquiries it appeared that the

person who came to TCA is not the same person whose name is in the BGMEA list. All

information relating to these two individuals’ employment is not matching and the person

who attended TCA did not receive one lac from BGMEA.

Comparison between the person who attended TCA and the worker’s information from

BGMEA List

Details Worker’s information

from BGMEA List

Information of the person who

came to TCA for Registration

Name J G

Designation Finishing Packing Man Quality Inspector

F. ID No 1767 1616

Line Not mentioned P

BGMEA Injured list Sl No 83 Not in BGMEA list

Final EC Report 42


After a series of questions and enquiries it is clear to TCA that he is not the same person

that TCA has been looking for. The principal reason for rejection is that no proof of

employment could be shown by the claimant.

B. Note on one non-eligible missing Claim

There is one missing claim (SL No. 112 of the list of awards) where the family alleged that

the victim was missing since Tazreen fire accident. The missing victim’s name was found on

Caritas and Activist Anthropologist lists. The missing worker’s brother informed that they

provided blood samples for DNA testing. However, the DNA did not match. In the context

that the alleged brother of the missing worker brought two different women at TCA office as

missing victim’s mother on two different days, TCA requested Caritas and Activist

Anthropologists to verify further on this matter.

Caritas subsequently provided a detailed verification report suggesting that this was a fake

case. The alleged brother never had any sister in the name of missing sister. The woman he

brought was not victim’s mother. He induced all this fraudulent representation in order to get

financial assistance from various organizations. Caritas also recommended not to provide

any compensation to the claimant on this missing case. In addition, the alleged brother could

not provide any supporting documents to prove any work relationship of the missing with

Tazreen factory. The missing worker did not receive financial assistance from Prime

Minister’s Office and MOLE. As a result, TCA considered it as non- eligible for compensation

and rejected this claim accordingly.

*******

ANNEX 3: NOTE ON TWO NON-ELIGIBLE DEPENDANTS

1. Non-eligible dependent is a child or sibling of a deceased or missing worker, who

because of his/her age (for children above 25 years and for sibling above 18 years) is

not eligible for compensation. There are two deceased claims registered with TCA,

where all the dependents of the deceased workers fall outside the approved age

limit, resulting in the exclusion of the dependents from receiving any compensation.

Following the Rana Plaza compensation scheme, these claims were considered on a

case by case basis.

Final EC Report 43


2. In one case, the deceased victim left one son (aged about 33 years) and one

daughter (aged about 29 years). Considering their current financial conditions and

level of economic dependency on the deceased, the Executive Commissioner

allocated a total of BDT 500,000 to the dependents of the deceased. The daughter

will receive BDT 300,000 and son will receive BDT 200,000.

3. In other case, the deceased left four brothers aged from 35 years to 58 years old.

This claim was also reviewed thoroughly to find out the level of the dependency on

the deceased. The Executive Commissioner had an exclusive interview with one of

the deceased’s brothers. It was informed that everyone has jobs and none of them

were economically dependent on the income of the deceased victim during his life

time. Therefore, there is no amount allocated form them.

*******

ANNEX 4: ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN TAZREEN CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION TRUST

AND CARITAS

This arrangement is made at Dhaka, Bangladesh on this the 28 day of June 2016.

Background

I. Ms._______________, the wife of deceased Tazreen worker ___________, was

registered with Tazreen Claims Administration Trust (“TCA”) as a beneficiary on 18

November 2015, together with other members of _________’s family. TCA has

issued an award in favour of Rotna for an amount of BDT 317,331(Taka Three Lac

Seventeen Thousand Three Hundred Thirty One). However, she was not in physical

or mental state to be able to visit TCA for opening her own bank account in order to

receive the awarded funds.

II. With the assistance from Caritas, which is familiar with _______ and her family under

other Tazreen related programmes implemented by Caritas, TCA tried to find the

best way to provide the award to _______. Following meeting in Dhaka between TCA

and Caritas, TCA arranged a meeting in Rangpur at Eidulpur, Jaigirhat, Mithapukur,

Rangpur (_______’s village) on 27 April 2016 with local residents, local government

representative (Union Parishad member), and ______’s relatives with a TCA Claims

Reviewer present at the meeting. It was obvious from the Rangpur visit that _____ is

in urgent need of medical treatment and care and she is not in a position to take care

of her own self. At the said meeting, two of ______’s relatives (________ and

______) were nominated with the consent of all the other family members to take the

duty of ensuring her treatment. Moreover, the Union Parishad member Mr. Shahadat

Hossain Shaju was appointed as a neutral observer to follow-up on the progress of

her treatment and day to day care.

Final EC Report 44


III. TCA has also received the report from Caritas (prepared by Ms. HasinaNouroj,

Psycho Social Counselor, Caritas Dhaka Region) stating ________’s medical

condition. Under these circumstances, TCA understands that _______ will not be

able to manage her own account or funds. TCA met with Caritas (represented by Mr.

Swapon Gomez and Mr. Michael Rozario) on this matter before as well as after the

meeting dated 27 April 2016.

IV. It has been agreed that TCA will transfer the awarded funds of BDT 317,331 for

______ to Caritas and Caritas will make the funds available for covering the justified

expenses for the benefit of ______’s treatment and regular care through the

collective account at Sonali Bank Rangpur held by the joint signatories of ______,

_____ and _________ (“the collective account”) on the following terms and

conditions:

Terms and conditions

1. On the basis of the agreement between TCA and Caritas, TCA shall transfer the

awarded amount of BDT 317,331 (“the funds”) to ______ through the intermediary of

Caritas.

2. Caritas shall open a separate bank account in order to receive the awarded amount

of BDT 317,331, operate and disburse the funds and give effect to the terms and

conditions of this arrangement.

3. The funds belong to ________alone and under no circumstances shall the funds be

applied towards any other purpose or for the benefit of any other person. In other

words the funds shall be kept in trust exclusively for the benefit of _____.

4. Caritas shall provide the funds in necessary and appropriate installments through the

collective account for the benefit of ____, primarily for her treatment (both physical

and psychological) and meet her other day to day needs such as food and clothing.

5. Caritas shall monitor _____’s treatment and day to day care is being carried out as

agreed in the meeting dated 27 April 2016. In this regard, Caritas shall ensure that

the funds transferred to the collective account are utilized properly for the aforesaid

purpose (mainly treatment and day to day care for ______).

6. Caritas will to consider if there are ways to invest the funds in order to generate

interest earnings where possible. Any interest earned shall belong exclusively to

_____.

7. Caritas shall provide a report to C&A Foundation and to the local Union Parishad

every 6 (six) months stating the amounts from the funds released as well as

remaining funds in favour of Rotna.

Final EC Report 45


Total Compensation AmountWith Supplement Calculated before partial deduction of amounts previously received from Prime Minister Welfare Fund

(only applicable for deceased & missing and not applicable for injured)

BDT. 1,050,000.00

(Ten Lac Fifty Thousand) (Supplement Amount Included: BDT 350,000.00)

NOTE: PAYMENT OF THE AWARD WILL BE MADE TO THE INJURED WORKERS OR THE DEPENDANTS OF

IN WITHNESS WHEREOF TCA and Caritas hereto have signed the arrangment on date,

month and the year first above written.

WITNESSES:

1. signed.

________________________

Caritas

2. ________________________

TCA

*******

ANNEX 5: SAMPLE NOTICE OF AWARDS

NOA for deceased and missing worker

House: 3B, Flat: 2C, Road: 49, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212

www.tazreenclaimstrust.org

Phone: 01733-336023, 01797-281628, 01797-281626

Notice of Award with Supplementary Payment

ID No: CL-6503115

REF:

Name Mst F

ID VC-74031115

Details of deceased/missing/injured persont Status Deceased

Date of Birth 17/01/1977

Sex Female

Name Mst. M

Claimant’s Details: Serial No. CL-6503115

Claim Date 03/11/2015

Date of Calculation 24/11/2012

Other Description: Previous Paid

Amount

700,000.00

Previous Payment

Date

12/12/2012

14/02/2016

Final EC Report 46


Sl.

No.

Dependents

(Claimants) Relationship

Total

Amount

Awarded

Deducted

Amount:

Amounts

previously

received from

Prime Minister

Welfare Fund

(only applicable

for deceased &

missing)

Total

Remaining

Amount

Total

Amount

Awarded

(with

Supplement)

Total

Supplement

Amount

Added

Total

RemainingDue

With

Supplement

Amount

1 Md. F

Son 200,000.00 150,000.00 350,000.00

2 Mst. M

Daughter 200,000.00 200,000.00 400,000.00

Total 700,000.00 300,000.00 400,000.00 1,050,000.00 350.000.00 750,000.00

*Not real name

REF:

Payment of Awards:

a) The awards shall be paid out after the authorization of the Tazreen

Coordination Committee.

b) Payments to each dependant of a deceased or missing worker will be

transferred to the individual bank accounts opened for each dependent at the

Dutch Bangla Bank.

c) The payments will be made for 100% of the amount awarded, after partial

deduction of the amounts previously received by claimants from the Prime

Minister Welfare Fund.

d) The Bank will inform you of payment through SMS to your mobile phone.

Amounts Awarded to Minors:


Tazreen Claims Administration Trust House: 3B, Flat: 2C, Road: 49, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212

www.tazreenclaimstrust.org

Phone: 01733-336023, 01797-281628, 01797-281626

RE-ISSUEDNotice of Award with Supplementary Payment

Page-2

095.1 D 14/02/2016

Final EC Report 47


e) It is emphasized that the legal custodians of the minors will be held

responsible for the preservation of the funds exclusively for the benefit of the

minors until they reach 18 year old, and only a reasonable amount could be

withdrawn now for the expenses of the minor.

Supplementary Payment:

f) In addition to the full payment of award calculated under ILO Convention 121,

Tazreen Coordination Committee has agreed to provide you a supplementary

payment. Your supplementary amount has been calculated at BDT 150,000.00.

This amount will be paid to your individual account opened with Dutch Bangla

Bank at the same time that you receive payment for the award. This

supplementary payment is in addition to your full payment of awards.

Additional Amount for You:

g) We are pleased to inform you that the Tazreen Coordination Committee has

agreed to provide each deceased/missing family with additional BDT 400,000.

This extra amount is in addition to your award and supplementary payment as

explained above and it will be effected by not deducting BDT 400,000 from the

amount you have already received from Prime Minister’s Welfare Fund and

BGMEA. Your family has received BDT 7 Lacs, but now only 3 Lacs of that

amount will be deducted. Additional BDT 400,000 has been divided among all

the dependents of each deceased/missing accordingly.

For this reason the Notice of Award that you previously received has been re-

issued to reflect this additional BDT 4 Lacs.

Government Savings Certificates and Investment:

h) We are available to provide information on the best use and investment of

the funds awarded to you, such as high–interest-bearing accounts as well as

Government Savings Certificates. We strongly recommend that you use this

opportunity, particularly for minors and women funds, to receive monthly

income. Information on this matter is provided in the Annex and you can contact

us (01733-336023, 01797-281628, 01797-281626) for more information and necessary

arrangements. If you are interested to obtain more information or assistance

about the investment options available to you, you should contact us within 3

weeks of receiving this Notice of Award.


Final EC Report 48


Total Compensation Amount (Calculated before deduction of amounts previously received from Prime Minister Welfare Fund and from BGMEA)

BDT. 105,000.00

(One Lac Five Thousand Only) (Supplement Amount Included: BDT 55,000)

NOTE: PAYMENT OF THE ABOVE AMOUNT WILL BE MADE TO THE INJURED WORKERS OR THE DEPENDANTS OF DECEASED/MISSING WORKERS THROUGH THEIR DUTCH BANGLA BANK ACCOUNTS AFTER DEDUCTION OF

PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED AMOUNTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING TABLE.

NoA for Injured workers

Tazreen Claims Administration Trust House: 3B, Flat: 2C, Road: 49, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212

www.tazreenclaimstrust.org Phone: 01733336023

ID No: CL-2967030614

REF:

Name A

ID VC-3173030614

Details of deceased/injured/missing persont Status Injured

Date of Birth 12/04/1979

Sex Male

Name A

Claimant’s Details: Serial No. CL-2967030614

Claim Date 03/06/2014

Date of Calculation 24/11/2012

Other Details: Previous Paid Amount 500000.00

Previous Payment Date 23/04/2014

Sl. No.

Dependents (Receiver)

Relationship Total

Amount Awarded

Deducted Amount

Previously Paid from

Prime Minister

Welfare Fund

Total Remaining

Amount

Amount

Paid

after

Issuance

of Award

Remaining Due

Amount

Total Amount Awarded

(with Supplement)

Total Supplement

Amount Added

Supplement Amount

paid

Remaining Due

Supplement Amount

Notice of Award with Supplementary Payment

23/12/2015

Final EC Report 49


& BGMEA

1 A Self 0.00 0.00 0.00 55,000.00 0.00 55,000.00

Total 50,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 105,000.00 55.000.00 0.00 55,000.00

1. The awards to the claimants shall be paid out by Tazreen Claims Administration

Trust established for this purpose, after the authorization of the Tazreen Coordination

Committee. The payments of the awards will be made to the extent that funds are

available currently or become available in future.

2. Payments to the dependants of the deceased workers, or to the injured claimants,

will be transferred to the individual bank accounts opened for each dependent or

injured claimant at the Dutch Bangla Bank.

3. The Coordination Committee has authorized payment of 100% of the amount

awarded.

4. As for the amounts awarded to minors, it is emphasized that the legal custodians of

the minors will be held responsible for the preservation of the funds exclusively for

the benefit of the minors until they reach 18 year old, and only a reasonable amount

could be withdrawn now for the expenses of the minor.

5. Correction of Errors: Each claimant is entitled to bring to the attention of the

Executive Commissioner any possible computational, clerical, or factual error in

his/her award, within a period of 15 days from the receipt of this Notice of Award, for

consideration. Supporting documents and information should be provided together

with the request for correction.

(If you need to file a request for correction, please contact 01797281628 for further

instruction.)

*******

Final EC Report 50


ANNEX 6: A REPORT ON DISTRIBUTION OF NOAS

*******

Final EC Report 51


ANNEX 7: SUMMARY REPORT ON REQUEST FOR CORRECTION

*******

Final EC Report 52


ANNEX 8: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR DECEASED

AND MISSING TAZREEN WORKERS

13 March 2016

TO: Members of Tazreen Coordination Committee

FROM: Mojtaba Kazazi


SUBJECT: Authorization of payment for deceased and missing Tazreen workers

1. I am pleased to enclose a comprehensive report and information from TCA database

relating to the deceased and missing workers and their dependants, together with the

amounts awarded to the each dependant of a deceased or missing Tazreen worker.

This report contains the detail particulars of dependants of a deceased or missing

worker, including name, address, relationship with the victim etc. It also includes the

work designation, salary, employment ID, etc of a deceased or missing worker.

2. In addition, this report specifies the share of awarded amount for each dependant of

a deceased or missing worker, which were calculated and apportioned accordingly.

This report will help an auditor to establish the link between the authorized amount

and paid amount for each dependant easily. Further, a separate per claim award

report is also enclosed for your information.

3. The breakdown of awards concerning the deceased and missing claims is as follows:

Claimant Type Number

of

claims

Number of

dependants

awarded

Total amount

awarded with

supplement

Deduction

(PM and

MOLE fund)

Total amount

to be paid

with

supplement

Deceased &

Missing

112 415 141,546,762.00 32,350,000.00 109,196,762.00

4. The total amount awarded is BDT 141,546,762.00. The total amount due to claimants

after deduction of BDT 32,350,000.00 previously received by the concerned

claimants from the Prime Minister Welfare fund and Ministry of Labour and

Employment is BDT 109,196,762.00.

Final EC Report 53


5. The maximum amount awarded with supplement is BDT 3,120,841.00 (the worker

was 48 years old, receiving a monthly salary of BDT 9000 with 8 dependants. The

minimum amount awarded with supplement is BDT 10,50,000.00.

6. There are two non-eligible claims included in this report. The dependants of

deceased workers in these two cases exceed the approved age limits (25 years for

children and 18 years for siblings). In line with the practice in Rana Plaza, these two

cases have been reviewed separately to see if the circumstances warrant allocation

of some amount as compensation. In one case (SL No. 95), a total of BDT 500,000 is

exceptionally allocated (for daughter, BDT 300,000 and for son, BDT 200,000)

considering their circumstances. The other case (SL No. 101) involved grown up

brothers with jobs, and no amount was allocated for them. In addition, there is one

missing case (SL No. 112) which has been rejected after a thorough verification with

the help of Caritas for failing to establish relationship between claimants and the

missing worker. (Additional information on these 3 cases is attached.)

Tabular representations of the awards are set below:

Deceased and Missing Claims Breakdown

No. of

Claims

No. of

successful

claims

No. of

Dependents

No. of

Successful

dependants

No. of

claims

receiving

money after

deduction

(without

supplement)

No. of

claims

receiving

money after

deduction

(with

supplement)

112 110 415 409 106 110

7. In line with Rana Plaza reporting practice, in the report provided to you the personal

information of the dependants and victims are removed on the ground of

confidentiality.

8. As you can see from the report, a total of BDT 109,196,762.00 (equivalent to

approximately USD 1,418,139.766 at the rate of BDT 77 to 1 USD) is required for

making payments to 409 dependants of 110 deceased and missing workers.

9. I request that the Coordination Committee authorize BDT 109,196,762.00 for the

payments to the dependants of deceased and missing workers in accordance with

the enclosed lists and reports. The payments will be made when the necessary funds

are available from the donors into the Trust funds and after the necessary

administrative works done for making a separate payment list for Dutch Bangla Bank

in their prescribed format.

Final EC Report 54


10. Enclosures:

(i) List of awards per dependent;

(ii) List of awards per claim;

(iii) Additional information on non-eligible and rejected case.

*******

ANNEX 9: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR ONE

ADDITIONAL DECEASED TAZREEN WORKERS

13 April 2016




SUBJECT: Authorization of payment for one additional deceased Tazreen worker

1. I recall that the Co-ordination Committee (CC) at its last meeting, dated 15 March

2016, authorized the payment of awards to 415 dependents of 112 deceased/missing

workers for a total amount of approximately USD 1.42 million as detailed in the

submission notes dated 13 March 2016.

2. Before the deadline for registration of claims expired on 15 February 2016, TCA was

in regular contact with Mst. M, the mother of deceased Tazreen worker Ad. Ad’s

name was present in TCA’s list of deceased persons and on CARITAS list. M was

unable to attend TCA or CRP, Savar on any of the dates provided to her in order to

register her claim. TCA was in contact with her during this period and eventually she

attended TCA office on 27 March 2016. Her claim was registered, reviewed and

Notice of Award (NOA) issued on the same day. Her total compensation amount was

calculated to be BDT 10,50,000 (with Supplement Amount of BDT 260,586). After

deduction of BDT 300,000 which M received from Prime Minister’s Welfare Fund and

others, her total remaining due amount with supplement is BDT 750,000 (equivalent

to approximately USD 9400).

Final EC Report 55


3. I request the authorization of the Co-ordination Committee to include Mst M to the

payments list.

4. With M’s inclusion to the payment list, the status of deceased/missing awards would

be as set out below:

Deceased and Missing Claims Breakdown

No. of

Claims

No. of

successful

claims

No. of

Dependents

No. of

Dependents

No. of claims

receiving

money after

deduction

(without

supplement)

No. of claims

receiving

money after

deduction

(with

supplement)

113 111 416 410 106 111

*******

Final EC Report 56


ANNEX 10: SUBMISSION NOTE FOR AUTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT FOR INJURED

TAZREEN WORKERS

9 May 2016




SUBJECT: Authorization of payment for injured Tazreen workers

1. I am pleased to enclose reports from TCA database relating to the injured workers

(“Tazreen Injured List Payment at a Glance with Supplement Report” as Annex- I

and “Tazreen Injured List MIS Report” as Annex - II), stating the amounts awarded to

each injured Tazreen worker. This report contains the work designation, salary,

employment ID, etc of each injured worker.

2. The breakdown of awards concerning the injured workers is as follows:

Claimant Type Number

of

claims

Total amount

awarded with

supplement

Deduction

(PM and

MOLE fund)

Total amount to be

paid with

supplement

Injured 174 57,567,120.00 0 57,567,120.00

3. The total amount awarded is BDT 57,567,120.00 (equivalent to approximately USD

747,624.93 at the rate of BDT 77 to 1 USD). As it has been agreed previously by the

Coordination Committee, TCA has not made any deductions in calculating the

compensation for injured workers in relation to previous financial assistance that may

have been received by them from the Prime Minister’s Office or the Ministry of

Labour and Employment.

4. The highest amount awarded is BDT 18,03,000.00 (the worker was 21 years old at

the time of accident, receiving a monthly salary of BDT 9000 with a DLP of 60% as

per Bangladesh’s Labour Act 2006 due to malunited elbow joint). The lowest amount

awarded with supplement is BDT 150,000.00 (there are several workers in this

category mainly due to DLP being between 1-3 percent with minor injuries/pains.

One example is a worker aged 30 at the time of the accident, with a salary of BDT

4300 before upgrading the salary to 2013 level, and minor leg pains when carrying

Final EC Report 57


heavy objects). A summary of the reviewed claims is attached as “Tazreen Injured

Claims Review Summary” (Annex – III).

5. There are 2 non-eligible claims included in this report. As explained in the attached

note on “Note on Non-Eligible Injured Claims” (Annex - IV) the claimants were not

able to show that they were Tazreen workers.

6. Tabular representations of the injured claims are set below:

Injured Claims Breakdown

No. of

Claims

No. of

successful

claims

No. of claims requiring

supplement amount

No. of claims not

requiring supplement

amount

174 172 161 13

7. In line with Rana Plaza reporting practice, in the report provided to you the personal

information of the injured are removed on the ground of confidentiality.

8. I request that the Coordination Committee authorize BDT 57,567,120.00 for the

payments to the injured workers in accordance with the issued awards listed in the

enclosed reports. The necessary funds are already available from the donors into the

TCA accounts. Payments will be made in cash and in the form of government

savings certificates (“sanchayapatra”) after the necessary administrative works are

done for making a separate payment list for Dutch Bangla Bank in their prescribed

format.

9. Enclosures:

(iv) Tazreen Injured List Payment at a Glance with Supplement Report – Annex I

(v) Tazreen Injured List MIS Report – Annex II

(vi) Tazreen Injured Claims Review Summary – Annex III

(vii) Note on Non-Eligible Injured Claims – Annex IV

*******

Final EC Report 58


ANNEX 11: PRESS RELEASE

Press release: 30 June 2016

Tazreen Claims Administration finalises compensation work

In total, BDT 167,463,882 (equivalent to approximately USD 2.17 million)was paid out

to workers injured in the Tazreen Fashion fire, as well as the dependents of the

missing and deceased.

In September 2015, the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust (TCA) was established to

make payments victims of the Tazreen Fashion Fire, including injured workers and families

of the deceased and missing.

To receive compensation, each claimant/beneficiary was required to file a claim form and

submit minimum documents establishing their employment at Tazreen and level of salary at

the time of the fire. Injured workers were medically assessed by multi-disciplinary teams of

doctors and psychologists from Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, a specialized

medical centre for providing services to persons with disabilities in Bangladesh. Loss of

income for the injured, deceased and missing workers was calculated on the basis of the

ILO Convention 121. In the case injury, it was calculated on the basis of salary and age of

the worker. For dependents of deceased or missing works, compensation was based on the

salary of the deceased/missing and the age and number of dependents.

Payments made

1. Deceased: 373 claims were filed by the dependents of 103 Tazreen deceased

workers. The amount awarded and paid to 373 dependents of the 103 deceased is

total BDT 99,358,890 (approximately USD 1,282,050.19).

2. Missing: 37 claims were filed by the dependents of 10 Tazreen missing workers. The

amount awarded and paid to 37 dependents of the 9 missing is total BDT10,537,872

(approximately USD 135,972.54).

3. Injured: 174 claims were filed by Tazreen injured workers. The amount awarded and

paid to 172 injured is total BDT57,567,120 (approximately USD 747,624.93).

In total, BDT 167,463,882 (equivalent to approximately USD 2.17 million), has been paid

out to 582 beneficiaries. The table below provides a summary report of all payments made to

claimants:

Final EC Report 59


SL Type of

Claims Claims

Eligible

Claims

Non

Eligible

Claims

Total

Depend

ents

Non Eligible

Dependents

Payment

s made to

the

depende

nts

BDT

1 Deceased 103 103 0 378 5 373 99,358,890

2 Missing 10 9 1 38 1 37 10,537,872

3 Injured 174 172 2 174 2 172 57,567,120

Total 287 284 3 590 8 582 167,463,882

Payments were made to the individual bank account that were opened for each beneficiary

with the Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, Motijheel Branch.

All beneficiaries were offered assistance to purchase shanchaipatra (government issued

saving bonds with an average interest rate of approximately 11%), with part or the full

amount of their awards. From the Dhaka region, 65 beneficiaries purchased shanchaipatra

amounting to BDT 19,700,000 and from Rangpur region, 51 beneficiaries purchased

shanchaipatra amounting to BDT 15,400,000. In total 116 beneficiaries purchased

shanchaipatra valued at BDT 35,100,000.

Source of Funding

The total funds required to pay awards, and to provide long term medical care for injured

workers from the Tazreen fire was estimated at approximately USD 2.5 million. The required

fund was contributed by C&A Foundation (USD 1,000,000), Fung Foundation (USD

1,000,000), BRAC USA (USD 250,000), KiK (USD 150,000) and EI Corte Ingles (USD

100,000).

In addition, C&A Foundation covered the administrative and running costs of TCA

separately, so that 100% of the money from donors went directly to victims and their

families.

Further programswill continue as planned, including the educational trust for children of

Tazreen victims, which is funded by the C&A Foundation and Fung Foundations.

Long term medical care

Long term medical care for injured workers is an important element of the Tazreen

programme. The Tazreen Coordination Committee has allocated a budget of approximately

Final EC Report 60


USD 350,000 for long term medical care to the workers injured in the Tazreen Factory fire.

Arrangements are being made to combine the Tazreen long term medical care programme

with that of Rana Plaza. A Trust for that purpose is being established.

With this, the Tazreen Claims Administration has completed its mandate and currently is

under the process of closing down.

More information is available in the enclosed document and http://tazreenclaimstrust.org/

For further inquiries, contact:[email protected]

*******

ANNEX 12: INFORMATION ON 172 INJURED WORKERS INCLUDING THEIR

DISABILITY LEVEL PERCENTAGE OF BOTH PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

Summary on Medical Assessment Report

1. Physical Disability Level Percentage

SL Disability Level Percentage Claimants

1. 0% 0

2. 1-3% 17

3. 4-6% 69

4. 7-9% 43

5. 10-30% 40

6. 31-100% 3

Total 172

Highest DLP(Physical) 85%

Lowest DLP (Physical) 2%


mailto:[email protected]

Final EC Report 61


2. Psychological Disability Level Percentage

SL Disability Level Percentage Claimants

1. 0% 0

2. 1-20% 19

3. 21-40% 145

4. 41-60% 7

5. 61-80% 1

6. 81-100% 0

Total 172

Highest DLP (Psychological) 75%

Lowest DLP (Psychological) 15%

xxx END xxx