On April 24 2013 a textile factory collapsed in Bangladesh causing the death of more than 1,100 workers who produced garments for Western companies. The tragedy also left several thousand wounded. A compensation fund was set up connected with the international service and industrial unions bodies: UNI Global and IndustriALL. A study estimates that 30 million $ is needed to fully compensate the families, yet two years later a 6 million $ shortfall remains.
Benetton, bringing up the rear. After announcing in February its willingness to contribute to the compensation fund, on April 17 the Italian garments company confirmed its intention to pay 1.1 million $ into the Rana Plaza victim compensation fund. Professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) advised that a payment of 550,000 $ would adequately reflect the Benetton’s commercial relationship with Rana Plaza but the Italian firm decided to double that.
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