The announcement was met with deep skepticism by the Workers Safety Forum (WSF), a forum of 17 legal and human rights organisations, who demanded at a press conference yesterday that the compensation package be considered an 'interim' one so as to ensure the victims' relatives receive further appropriate compensation.

Ali Azam Khan, chairman of the BGMEA's Standing Committee on Safety Measures, told The Daily Star, "According to the received application for compensation, we will give Tk 1 lakh for each dead victim to 24 relatives. Of that, BGMEA will give Tk 79,000 considering the humanity of the issue. The remaining Tk 21,000 as compensation, according to labour laws, will be given through the Commissioner of the Labour Court," he said, adding, "We have already sent Tk 21,000 for 24 relatives to the Commissioner of the Labour Court."

Khan later clarified and said the owner of Spectrum Sweater Industries Ltd. himself is paying the total amount of compensation. "BGMEA is not giving the money," he said, adding that BGMEA is merely dispensing the funds.

A compensation giving ceremony will be held at 10:00am today at BGMEA's office in Karwan Bazar, he said.

Rights activists, however, insist that the money is not enough. Speaking to The Daily Star by telephone after the WSF press conference yesterday, Dr. Hamida Hossain, founding member, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), said, "As this accident was not an ordinary one, compensation according to the labour laws is not enough here. Rather the actual compensation has to be calculated."

Shirin Akhter, of Karmajibi Nari read out the written statement, while Hamida Hossain of ASK, Syeda Rezwana Hasan of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Zafrul Hasan of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), Taslimur Rahman of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and others attended.

Shirin Akhter said BGMEA must inform the victim's relatives that they will be able to go to court for proper compensation even after taking this interim compensation. She vowed that WSF will agitate as need be for proper compensation of the victims.

Hamida Hossain apprised the meeting that her organisation recently visited a hospital in Savar and found many of the victims had left without fully recovering. "BGMEA is providing little cost for their treatment. It is not enough," she said.