(Update) Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapsed Building / Toll Reaches 782

The death toll for Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster rose to 782 as the army continued to clear debris at a garment factory building that collapsed last month.

The army’s attempt to recover more bodies from the rubble at Rana Plaza that collapsed on April 24 will continue for at least another week, Mir Rabbi, an army spokesman, said by phone.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association used an emergency fund and has started paying salaries to the survivors and families of the victims of the clothing factories, said Atiqul Islam, president of the grouping. About 700 workers have been paid last night after hundreds of them blocked a highway yesterday demanding compensation.

Garment factories in Bangladesh face increased scrutiny after the collapse of the building and a November fire that claimed 112 lives. The South Asian government, workers, employers and the International Labour Organization agreed to a plan to improve workers rights and safety. The 27-nation European Union is considering action under its trade rules to encourage changes in the nation’s supply-chain operations.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Bangladesh Garment Factory Building Collapse Toll Reaches 782 – Bloomberg.

Dozens of people have been found alive in a room in the ruins of a building outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, a day after it collapsed.

Bangladeshi television broadcast images of the operation at the site of the collapse in the Savar area, which killed at least 250 people.

It is thought many more people may still be unaccounted for.

Police said the owners of factories in the building had ignored warnings about cracks appearing on Tuesday.

Some 2,000 people were in the Rana Plaza building in Savar, some 30km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, when it collapsed suddenly on Wednesday morning.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com

The High Court has summoned the Rana Plaza building owner and senior managers of the factories to appear before judges on 30 April, local media report.

The factory owners are said to have gone into hiding.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via BBC News – Dhaka building collapse: Dozens found alive in rubble.