Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies

The purposes of this study are, firstly to investigate the two recent industrial accidents: the collapse of Rana Plaza and the fire at Tazreen Fashions, and secondly, to find out the reasons behind these accidents. The study particularly focuses on the readymade garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh. It is qualitative in nature and follows an interpretivist and constructivists philosophical paradigm. Data were collected through triangulation method which uses two deviant cases (Rana Plaza and Tazreen Garments), and responses from a qualitative questionnaire. The questionnaire sample includes 16 male participants from 8 RMG factories located in Dhaka. All the participants were top-level executives at those factories (i.e. owners and general managers). The study finds that non-compliance with the occupational health and safety (OHS) provisions and the evasive nature of the factory owners were the main causes of the accidents. The study also discovers that there is a significant difference in the OHS practice among the factory owners of the outsourced and the subcontracted factories. The study further explains the rationale behind this difference.