More than one and a half years have passed since 1137 garment workers lost their lives and more than 2500 people were injured in the Rana Plaza industrial disaster – only five months after a fire at Tazreen factory killed 112 workers. These disasters sent shockwaves around the world, and shed light on the exploitative and often dangerous working conditions of Bangladesh’s growing RMG-industry. For years Bangladeshi trade unions, together with their comrades in the international labour movement, had voiced their concerns ...

The central bank yesterday declared an incentive package for tanners to help them move hazardous factories to a designated industrial park in Savar. Tanneries which have already moved there from the toxic tannery hub of Hazaribagh or under process to do so will get an opportunity to shift their irregular loans into block accounts and will have eight years for repayment, with a one-year grace period, Bangladesh Bank said in a notice. Tanners will be charged 10 percent interest on the loans in the block accounts or banks’ cost of fund or whichever is lower, report...