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Rana Plaza Building Collapse 24th April, 2013 (Why it Happened? (Vibrating…
Rana Plaza Building Collapse 24th April, 2013
What Happened?
On the 24th April 2013 an eight story garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, n.d.)
Killing 1134 people and injuring over 2400 others (Department for International Development and Foreign & Commonwealth Office 2014)
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh established as a result of the Rana Plaza Collapse to ensure workers are protected by acceptable health and safety measures (Accord, 2018)
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Power outage occurred the morning of the collapse meaning the generators on top of the building needed to start up. This was the major contributor to the collapse that day (Gavin, 2015)
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Sohel Rana and 17 others were charged with violating building codes (BBC News, 2017)
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Sohel Rana found guilty of corruption (BBC News, 2017)
Worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh's history (Engel, 2013)
Why it Happened?
Structurally unsound and poorly maintained for its purpose (Bolle, 2013)
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Rana Plaza built on very swampy ground (Associated Press, 2013)
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Vibrating generators on roof of 8th floor contributed to poor condition of building (Associated Press, 2013)
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The building wasn't purpose built for garment factories and the heavy machinery needed to make the garments contributed to the collapse (Engel, 2013)
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The buildings columns and walls were constantly put into tensions by multiple stressors (Gavin, 2015)
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Design Failures
Built on swampy ground
The building sagged and contorted in these unsupported areas (Gavin, 2015)
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Cracks 2 inches deep in the walls of the 7th floor (Gavin, 2015)
System Life Cycle
Concept
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If it was planned to be used for factories the architect would have made necessary measures to ensure structural integrity of the building (Bergman & Blair, 2013)
Building needed to be strengthened to cope with vibration, industrial machinery and large amount of people moving about in the building
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Comissioning
Sohel Rana paid monetary bribes to acquaintances in politics to have the extra 2 stories illegally added
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Issues and Findings
Related to People
Workers ineffectively exercised their right to a safe work environment (Bolle, 2013)
Most of the workers were women and girls (International Labour Organisation, n.d.)
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Related to Workplaces
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Western countries benefited from Bangladesh's low cost labour (cheap clothes in western countries) (BBC news, 2017)
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Shopping malls and banks in Rana Plaza closed on the day of the collapse due to uncertainty of the buildings integrity (Gavin, 2015)
Factory workers weren't given this luxury as they were threatened with a months wage deduction - a life threatening situation in itself.
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Related to Management
Workers were told, after protesting about the large cracks in the structure, that if they did not return to work they wouldn't be paid. So, they returned to work (Bolle, 2013)
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Ignored workers concerns and bullied them into returning to work resulting in large death and injury toll
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Organisational Factors
Managers could not be certain about the buildings integrity and intentionally gambled with workers safety (Gavin, 2015)
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Owners (Sohel Rana)
Seen as the most hated Bangladeshi (Gomes, 2013)
Used political power to have extra 2 floors signed off against building codes (Gavin, 2015)
Government
Unenforced building codes and regulations become the norm and it becomes an unethical decision that ensures to endanger public safety (Gavin, 2015)