The Collapse of Rana Plaza
On April 24, 2013, a commercial building in Savar, the capital of Bangladesh collapsed. The death toll was estimated to be 1,129 bodies with just about 2,515 injured. The eight-story building consisted of many small businesses as well as industry leading companies such as H&M, Tesco, Gap, Walart, and Disney. With the garment industry making three-quarters of the total GDP for Bangladesh, there was no industry power used to take appropriate action to prevent the tragedy. In this paper I will state who bears most responsibility for the tragedy and what I feel the next appropriate actions should be taken. An ethics analysis will be completed on the three key players of the tragedy whom are the owners of the factory, the Bangladeshi government, and the companies that had products produced at Rana Plaza.
I believe that the owners of the plaza bear the most responsibility for the tragedy at Rana Plaza. As owners, they have the responsibility to maintain, repair, and have the general upkeep of the building in good working order. This includes the repairs to the individual units as well as the repairs to the common elements of the building. The common elements include all parts of the property that are outside of the boundaries between the units that organizations occupy. The onus is on the owner that the funds collected for the lease or rent of each unit is used accordingly. The owner did not lack resources or comprehension to take action to prevent this problem. The building was initially evacuated after workers spotted cracks in the walls and pillars a day before the collapse. However, the workers were called back to work the next day, which seemed to be hours before the collapse. Before the tragedy even occurred he was aware of the discrepancy, there was pressure to act from the workers, and there was sufficient resources to do something