Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially

constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions (Suchman, 1995, p. 574, emphasis in original). Legitimacy theory is one of the important theories of environmental and social accounting. It involves the companies to do proper disclosure of their responsibilities to society. Legitimacy theory comes under the umbrella of CSR, which can be defined that legitimacy theory is that not only to focus on profit maximization of company also to disclose the true picture of company for its stake holders and such factors which makes the company responsible by applying institutional pressure by a culture and society. Legitimacy theory can be easily understandable by categorizing in pragmatic legitimacy, moral legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy. Pragmatic legitimacy involves the companies to what they are giving to their stakeholders in return or exchange. Moral legitimacy means that conscious judgment of audience to validate the moral action of company for its stake holders. Tarzeen Factory Fire Accident and WalMart Response Tazreen Fashion factory was opened in 2009 which was a part of the Tuba group. They employed about 1,630 workers this company who produced polo shirts T-shirts and jackets. The factory produced clothes for various companies including the Marines, C&A, Walmart and Li & Fung. The Tuba group is a major exporter of garments in Bangladesh and they export to U.S, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherland. On 24 November 2012 in the Tazreen Fashion factory fire cause at least 117 people were confirmed dead and at least 200 were injured. The fire was caused by an electrical short circuit which was started on the ground floor of the nine-story factory, because of large amount of fabrics and yarn in the factory the large number of labour became victim of fire and fire quickly spread to other floors so, fire fighting operation becomes complicated. It takes about seventeen hours to fire fighters to control over extinguishing the fire. Most victims were found on the second floor, where at least 69 bodies were found and labours was unable to escape out of factory because of narrow exits. Some of the victims died while running from windows. Fire fighting and controlling department reported that most of peoples were unable to escape from fire because there was no proper emergency exit in the building. On 15th April meeting was held in Geneva which was hosted by Industrial Global union & the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Worker Rights Consortium (leading Bangladeshi union). In which the brands from Europe attended the meeting and the compensation plan for the victims of fire was discussed and it is decided that it should be 5.7 million us dollar. The amount of compensation was decided with the help of International labour organization on the base of another incident of fire which was happened in garment factory Sportswear who exports to German company GAP and other US brands. Walmart was the largest buyer from Tarzeen factory and they did not force to apply any of safety standards for the workers of factory which cause a large number of deaths in fire at factory. Walmart, Sears and Disney refused to pay any compensation to the victims and failed to attend the meeting. Major European retailers C&A, KiK and El Corte attended the meeting and agreed to make considerable contributions to the compensation plan for the families of the deceased and injured victims. The Italian clothing brand Piazza Italia did not attend the meeting but they agreed to participate in compensation plan. Some other

companies who failed to attend include Li & Fung (agreed to participate in compensation), Teddy Smith, Edinborough Woolen Mills,Dickies and Karl Rieker. Rana Plaza Factory collapse and Primark Response Primark is an Irish clothing retailer under a brand name stores Penneys operating in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Primark was first started in June 1969 in Dublin. The main headquarter of company is in Dublin. It is a subsidiary brand of British food processing company ABF. Primark becomes a big brand and then new stores were added to its chain. Primark men and women wear clothing was manufactured at Rana plaza in Bangladesh. On 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building named Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh small district Savar. About 1130 people died and 3,000 were injured. Primark offered compensation and emergency aid to the victims of the collapse. Primark has initiated the process of paying compensation to thousands of workers and their families who were involved in the Rana Plaza factory accident. Primark had decided to provide short-term aid which will be equal to three month salary of employees and they also assured to pay long term benefit to the victims but it will take a long time to decide about the right compensation. Paul Lister, head of governance at AB Foods said it is a right thing to do for victims because they are really facing hardships. Daniel Randall who was the activist of campaign said the compensation deal was certainly better than nothing but Primark still had a long way to go. The basic thing that we want for companies to recognise independent trade unions in the workplace. Primark wants to guarantee that compensation gets to the right place and that any health and safety accords are properly enforced. Primark promoted the campaign by entering in health and safety accord to make workers space to organise and ensure independent trade unions can do that in every factory. He also mentioned Gap and Walmart for refusing to sign the accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh. This agreement was drawn up by unions and campaigners with the support of more than three dozen retailers, including H&M, Zara, Marks & Spencer and Primark. Such incidents are not only happened in Bangladesh as well as happened in many other countries due to not following the health and safety precautionary measures. In above both incidents the Walmart and Primark were socially bound in a legal and social responsibility for the health of society health and safety and the victims of the incident. Both companies should comply with the health and safety measures should be provided to workers at factories and they should also involve the Bangladesh government and welfare society to provide enough safety measures to workers. Walmart declared the Tazreen Fashion as orange grading due to lack of safe work arrangements which was not enough for implementing the safety policies. Walmart could implement this by forcing or cancelling the next orders to Tazreen Fashion at that time. Primark also increased the safety regulations after the incident. After the deadly incidents in both companies makes them realized their corporate social responsibility and took some steps to precautionary safety practices at the workplace with their partner suppliers in Bangladesh. On 27 November, Walmart announced to end its relationship with Tuba, which Walmart stated had been contracted by a supplier without its knowledge. Walmart also said it would donate US$1,600,000 to Institute for Sustainable Communities, which will use the donation to set up an Environmental, Health

and Safety Academy in Bangladesh. After the Rana Plaza collapse, including Primark more than 50 brands have signed up to a legally binding building safety agreement backed by international trade union Industrial and the Bangladeshi government. Under the terms of the deal, brands including H&M and Marks & Spencer, as well as Primark, have each agreed to contribute up to $500,000 a year towards rigorous independent factory inspections and the installation of fire safety measures. On their website, Primark has declared some of the steps taken into response of Rana Plaza incident. It include short term financial assistance to the affected families. This aid was equal to three months salary. Primark also started structural building surveys in Bangladesh to assess the structural integrity of factories from which Primark source garments. It also showed its great concern in making the workplace fire safe. The Accord is a pioneering contract between 70 apparel brands and retailers, international and local trade unions and NGOs to ensure sustainable improvements to working conditions in the Bangladesh Garment Industry. Although the incidents affected the huge brands negatively but Walmart and Primark realized their Corporate social Responsibility and performed necessary actions to neutralize the affect of disasters due to lack of safety regulations in developing country. Conclusion