Matalan relents over donation to Bangladesh disaster fund

MATALAN, the North West discount fashion and homewares retailer, has had a change of heart and donated to the United Nations-backed fund set up to compensate the victims of the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh.

The Skelmersdale-based company, had initially said that it was supporting alternative projects in Bangladesh, but camer under pressure from charities and two prominent Labour politicians, shadow international development secretary Jim Murphy and shadow international development minister Alison McGovern, who wrote to Matalan boss Jason Hargreaves, asking him to reconsider the retailer’s position and pay into the fund, which is well short of its $40m target.

The Rana Plaza factory collapse killed 1,129 people and injured 2,515 in April 2013. Matalan was the only large  retailer not to have donated money, according to the campaign group 38 Degrees.

The group’s Susannah Compton said: “This week, tens of thousands of people emailed, called and tweeted Matalan to tell them they couldn’t walk away from the devastating consequences of the Rana Plaza disaster.

“It looks like good news for people power that Matalan has said that it will pay into the official compensation fund.

Matalan has also contributed to the Rana Plaza Survivors Rehabilitation Scheme, which is managed by Bangladeshi development organisation BRAC. A Matalan spokesman said it had committed to giving 100% of the money it earned from clothes made in Rana Plaza to the BRAC fund, but the amount would be small given that it only used the factory for a few weeks in February and March 2013.

Matalan’s chairman, Allan Leighton, said in a statement: “We are very proud of the work we have been doing with BRAC on the ground in Bangladesh over the last few months. Together we have helped hundreds of people who have been injured or lost loved ones in the Rana Plaza tragedy and we are looking at ways to make sure this help continues. We have also made a donation to ILO [International Labour Organisation].”

He added: “We wish to make it clear that we have never been ordered by any organisation to pay compensation or been found culpable for the tragedy. However, our company is happy to continue to make substantial contributions to help the people who need it most.”

Other British retailers linked to the factory, including Manchester-based N Brown Group, Primark, Asda and Debenhams have contributed to the fund.

Matalan stressed that its relationship with the New Wave Organisation (the factory in Rana Plaza) never went beyond an “initial test period”, which ended before the tragedy occurred.

A statement said: “We wish to make it clear that we have never been ordered by any organisation to pay compensation or been found culpable for the tragedy.”

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