24/10/2013 World Business Report

latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest financial

news with world Business Report. A grim anniversary ` it's six months

since 1,100 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory complex

collapsed in Bangladesh. We assess what if anything has changed.

Microsoft's set to reveal record earnings today but what investors

really want to know is who will take over as CEO when Steve Ballmer

leaves next year. We look at the candidates. Welcome to world

Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme, China's

manufacturers have just had a bumper month. We'll have the latest details

on that But first, it was one of the worst workplace disasters in

history. More than 1,100 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory

complex collapsed in Bangladesh. It was six months ago to the day.

Walmart, Benetton and Primark were just some of the big name retailers

whose garments were made on the premises. Talks over compensation

for staff and their families continue, Primark is expected to

confirm today it will extend its deal for workers from six to nine

month's salary. That's the equivalent of $350 for every single

worker. In his first BBC interview, Paul Lister, head of corporate

governance, told Simon Jack that Primark accepted full responsibility

for the staff working on its products and was working towards

improving safety and conditions. We were sourcing out of one factory on

the second floor of the eight story building. We knew we were there. We

knew we accepted responsibility for those workers. This is a primer

T`shirt bought this morning, it cost two pounds fifty. If you are in the

business of selling clothes very cheaply, you are in the business of

low pay and dangerous working conditions. Absolutely not. We share

the factories with box of retailers. We will find T`shirts sound ``

solder two pounds fifty next to T`shirts being sold for thirty two

pounds. It is the same wages and the same pay. How much extra would you

have to add to the price of this tissue to make sure someone was

better paid, not working all those hours and not working in hazardous

building. Nothing. We know the factory where that T`shirt is made,

we will have an spectre that factory on several occasions. We are a

constant on of looking to see that the work that is in the factory, the

workers conditions are appropriate. I can guarantee we can look. The

wages we think they are being paid is ten p an hour. Working will than

ten hours a day. Would you work for ten p an hour? When we look at an

inspection, we look at the hours of work. It is difficult for us to say,

this line next to this line needs to be paid more than this line working

for a Bond Street retailer. I do not think the Bond Street retailer

workers would be sliced to be sitting next to a primer retailer

who worked more. What it needs is a collective approach to raising the

wages. We would welcome that. Now our correspondent in Dhaka, Mahfuz

Sadique joins us from the site of the disaster. We heard from one of

the key players at prime mark. From your point of view, what has changed

on the ground since that is the `` disaster? I'm standing outside the

site of the building which killed more than eleven hundred people six

months on. What has changed on the ground is, there has been a lot of

promises like the ones prime mark has made and other major retailers

have formed safety plans on both sides of the Atlantic. They are

promising to change the safety regulation and improve safety for

workers. What is difficult, that considering the scale of the

industry, it is a twenty one early in dollar plus industry. The

majority of factories have their own standards. There is a sub

contracting side to it, factories sub contract work from companies

like Trimark in factories housed in unsafe buildings. They spoken to one

of the survivors who was in the Plaza, the miraculous woman survivor

who was saved seventeen days after the collapse. She said salaries of

these workers need to be increased and compensation should be played.

Their salaries should be increased, whatever is needed to make their

lives safer must be done. They work very hard and suffer a lot. These

clothes are bought foreign buyers. I would ask them to give the

compensation they have promised. If I'm successful one day I would like

to help them as well. What has happened regarding compensation for

there is and families? `` victims. The issue of compensation has been

coming up for the last six months. Outside the Plaza site, workers and

survivors of those who perished are demanding compensation right now.

What has happened in the last few months, from the Prime Minister's

relief fund and other big business bodies have come up with ad hoc

compensation. It does not fall under a legal framework. None of the

families all survivors have gotten legal compensation. A British survey

has done a survey which says that only six percent of the survivors

they had serve eight, at actually got some form of legal compensation.

The figures of the survey make for grim reading. At the same time, many

of these workers who suffered had not been able to go back to work

because they have physical injuries and they have not had enough medical

attention since that disaster six months ago. Microsoft reports

profits for the past three months later on Thursday, but the $25

million question is who will take over the company next year. Current

boss Steve Ballmer is due to go before August next year. We work for

the greatest company in the world. He made other but many disagree.

Steve Ballmer took over the running of Microsoft from bill Gates in two

thousand. Under tenure, the firm has had more misses than hits. Remember

music and video player, launched in two thousand and six, it could never

compete with Apple's iPod. Its tablets have also been playing catch

up to Apple with less than two percent market share. Do not forget

the disappointing launch of Windows eight last year. This is how

investors are assessing its performance. Since its main rival

Google listed its shares in two thousand and four, their values rose

by thousands are sent. Compare that to Microsoft, at just twenty four

percent. That no`one can beat Apple. Its shares are up more than

three thousand percent. So who can reinvigorate the firm? There is a

lot of speculation over who will become the third ever CEO of

Microsoft. The boss of Ford is believed to be one of the

front`runners. Although he remains quiet on the possible move. Another

candidate is the former CEO of Nokia, which is selling its phone

business to Microsoft. And Oracle president, although he says he is

not planning to move to Microsoft, is not confirmed or denied whether

he has been asked. One of the things we have seen from the likes of Apple

and Facebook, Google is that you need someone who is ready to go out

on a limb and do something totally dramatic compared to what they have

been doing in the past. Thanks to its strong enterprise business which

dominates work place computers, its revenues are expected to continue

growing. But in the post` PC world, now maybe the time a technical ``

technical visionary, rather than a great business manager. Business

managers who like to wear bright yellow shirts. Markets in Asia,

Japan down as half a percent. That was India yesterday. China's

factories experienced their strongest expansion in seven months

in October, adding to evidence the world's second`largest economy is

recovering. I will see you seen for a look through the papers.

England's chief medical officer has criticised the state of children's