Bangladeshi Woman Rescued After 17 Days Told “Get Back to Work”

Bangladeshi rescuers pulled a garment worker alive from the rubble of a building 17 days after the collapse and immediately ordered her back to work.

Referring to her time buried alive as “17 days unauthorized vacation”, the garment factory she works for transferred her to another facility to begin paying off the time.

As she was transported by ambulance to her new job, the rescued woman who goes by the single name of Reshma told reporters that she already works 20 hours a day for 15 cents an hour. “Thank goodness for the raise, [or] else I’d never pay off all this vacation time,” she praised her good fortune.

“I was saving up for a last name but, hey, sh*t happens! That’s what savings are for.” The garment factory management…management that’s currently not incarcerated, that is…declined interviews, but did issue a statement which said in part, “Looks like Reshma’s going to be putting in some serious overtime for a while.”

Ironically, Reshma suffered fewer injuries from being buried alive than she normally receives on the job. However, the seamstress made the mistake of telling a local Bangladeshi television station that she stayed alive by drinking bottles of water scattered in the rubble and eating dried food from the backpacks of the deceased.

After the collapsed building’s owners protested, local authorities in turn charged Reshma with thief of private property and ordered her to fully reimburse the relatives of the dead as well as the owners. “We refuse to turn a blind eye to blatant theft. What kind of society would we become if we allowed that kind of overt exploitation?” said a local law enforcement official that declined to be identified for free.

Reshma said she was anxious to start her new dead-end position at the death trap across town in Dhaka and begin paying off her massive debt.

“Besides, the Americans depend on me to provide them with cheaply priced clothing to reinforce the illusion that inflation is flat. I can’t let them down!” she said. And even though her 17-day vacation left her less rested and refreshed than she might have liked, she declared, “It was probably still better than a Carnival Cruise.”