Rana Plaza: the supply chain disaster that changed garment sourcing

Rana Plaza, a building in Savar near Dhaka, Bangladesh, housed five garment factories making clothes for international brands. Its upper floors had reportedly been built without permission and were not designed for heavy machinery. Cracks appeared in the walls on 23 April 2013. Workers were told to return the next day and were reportedly threatened with the loss of a month's pay if they refused.

On 24 April 2013, the building collapsed. More than 1,100 people were killed (IndustriALL puts the toll at 1,134; other sources give 1,132), most of them women, and about 2,500 were injured.

Within weeks, global unions IndustriALL and UNI negotiated the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a legally binding agreement that came into force in May 2013 and was first signed by 43 brands. It required independent inspections, mandatory repairs, worker safety committees and complaint channels. It later became the International Accord, renewed in November 2023 to run until the end of 2026, with 297 brand signatories. By April 2026, it reported more than 48,000 inspections, an 81% remediation rate and more than 2.5 million workers trained, and it had expanded to Pakistan.

• Visible structural damage that managers ignored.
• Floors added without permits, carrying loads they were not built for.
• Workers with no safe way to refuse dangerous work.
• Buyers relying on supplier codes of conduct rather than independent, binding safety checks.

• Brands carry real risk for conditions deep in their supply chains, even when they do not own the factories.
• Binding agreements with independent inspection and worker voice achieved far more than voluntary codes.
• Supply chain due diligence must cover building and fire safety, not just wages and hours.
• Indian exporters in textiles and garments face the same buyer expectations and, increasingly, legal due diligence duties in Europe.