"Unprecedented" murder charges laid for deaths of workers in the Rana Plaza factory collapse

The reckoning has finally begun.

Two years ago, the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh crumpled. More than a thousand workers died.

Today, police charged more than 40 people connected to the disaster with murder. The list of the accused includes the owner of the building, Sohel Rana, and several government officials.

"This is the first time," Farah Kabir of the NGO ActionAid tells As It Happens guest host Tom Harrington. "There's been fire incidents [in factories before], but no one has been charged."

If convicted, the accused people could face the death penalty.

"If this really went through and the judgement was made and executed, then it really would set a precedent," says Kabir.

But she and the survivors she works with are cautious. They worry that because those charged include powerful people - factory owners, government officials and elected representatives - they may use their connections to escape justice.

"Like me, [the survivors] are encouraged, but everybody is a bit cynical. They're waiting to see what happens."

The prosecutors charged the group with murder because an inspection showed major cracks in the building, but workers say the factory bosses at the Rana Plaza pressured them to go inside on the morning of the collapse.

Kabir works with a group of about 260 survivors. Compensation from the government and from the factory owners and international buyers has been slow to arrive. Many are still without work.

"It's been a very, very difficult two years for them. A lot of them were traumatized," she says. "These are real people. They need to buy food on a daily basis. They need treatment money. They have children."