Description of the collapse
One of the buildings of Rana
Plaza at the suburb of Savar in Dhaka in Bangladesh collapsed. The
building is a garment factory which was used in manufacturing clothes products.
The collapsed garment factory consisted mainly of 8 floors. Heavy machineries
were used in the factory to assist in the process of production. On the day
before the collapse and exactly on 23rd of April 2013, the building
of the factory started to crack and the employees felt shakes in the building.
The employees fled out of the building because they were afraid of the
collapse of the factory. On that day, before the occurrence of the disaster,
one engineer was called to come to inspect the structure of the building. The engineer reported that the building was
unsafe and advised the owner of the factory to evacuate the building because it
may collapse. The owner and the manager
of the factory didn’t take the report into consideration and they ordered their
employees to come to the workplace as usual. On the next day on 24th
of April 2013, the employees attended their work. They operated the generators
and other machineries. The strong vibration of the machineries and generators
besides the weak structure of the building led to the collapse of the building.
More than one thousand employees died in the collapse. It was the worst
disaster in the garment industry in Bangladesh.
After investigations, who are the
persons to be blamed for the collapse?
After investigation of the incident, a
lot of stakeholders were found to be blamed for the collapse of the garment
factory. The first stakeholder group to be blamed is
the engineers who were involved in constructing the building. The engineers
knew that material which was used in constructing the building was below standard and had low quality.
In addition,
the owner of the building is blamed in collapsing the building. The owner got
permission to build a factory of 5 floors but he added 3 extra floors to the
building. Moreover, the owner knew about the possibility of collapsing the
building one day before the collapse and he asked the employees to come to the
workplace as usual
Furthermore,
the engineers who were working for the municipality of Savar were
found to be participants in the collapse. They issued illegally safety
clearance despite the appearance of cracks in the building before the collapse.
Finally, the
government has to be blamed for the collapse because it didn’t issue either
severe laws to ensure the safety of the building or assign responsible persons
to inspect structures of the buildings.
Ethical issues involved
A lot of ethical issues are involved
in this case. The engineers involved in constructing the building didn’t have a
code of ethics of engineering. They completed the building although they were
aware that the materials of building were under standards and didn’t match
the work of a factory. It seemed that they have taken off the hat of
engineering in order to achieve personal benefits. They were paid in order to issue false reports that ensured that
the building was in good condition. Moreover,
the owner of the
factory is not concerned with business ethics. He is only concerned with saving
money of construction, building illegal extra 3 floors in order to rent them to
collect more money. The owner behaved unethically and he is not concerned with
saving the life of people and keeping their safety. He is rather very concerned
with gaining a lot of money.
Furthermore, the manager of the factory didn't follow the code of ethics
when he permitted heavy machineries and big generators to be installed in the
factory which may cause strong vibration and shakes in the building. The
manager also behaved unethically when he ordered the employees to continue
working after he knew that the building was going to collapse. The manager did that in order to maintain
his position.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the collapse of the
garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh happened because of the absence of
business ethics. All stakeholders who are involved in building and running the
factory seem that they don't have morals or ethics in doing their jobs. All
people are mainly concerned with collecting money, keeping their positions and
achieving personal gain.
References
§
Burke, J. (6
June, 2013), Bangladesh factory collapse leaves trail of shattered lives, Retrieved
March 15, 2014 from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/bangladesh-factory-building-collapse-community
§
Building
Materials Blamed for Bangladesh Factory Collapse, (May 23, 2013), Retrieved
March 13, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/bangladesh-factory-collapse-cause-building-materials_n_3323676.html
§
Neate, R. (February
24, 2014), Bangladesh factory collapse: big brands urged to pay into help fund,
Retrieved March 16, 2014 from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/bangladesh-factory-collapse-big-brands-urged-pay-help-fund
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