US CBP tells Top Glove to do more to rectify labour issues

KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Top Glove Corp Bhd has been instructed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to carry out additional rectification and verification works in relation to its efforts addressing forced labour issues.

In a bourse filing, the group announced that one of the additional rectifications is to return workers' identity documents retained by recruitment agents.

According to Top Glove, this impacts less than 1% of its workers.

Another rectification is remediation for workers who did not manage to come to Malaysia to work due to Covid-19-related lockdowns. However, Top Glove did not reveal the detail of action it needs to take to remediate this.

"As to date, no disposable gloves have been seized pursuant to the Withhold Release Order. There is also no financial and operational impact on the company based on current assessment.

"Top Glove remains committed to the welfare, health and safety of our workforce," it said.

The rubber glove maker added that it has clarified with the CBP, and that there are no new issues on force labour, as per its announcement on April 1.

On March 29, the CBP announced that it was directing all personnel at all US ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by Top Glove.

The decision came after the CBP Office of Trade, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, published a forced labour finding against disposable gloves produced by Top Glove.

The government agency said that it had sufficient information to believe Top Glove used forced labour in the production of disposable gloves.

Top Glove had earlier said that an independent consultant found no systemic forced labour within the group as of January this year.

It also had appointed the consultant to verify corrective action plans it implemented to eliminate the presence of forced labour indicators from its practices.

Shares in Top Glove fell seven sen to RM4.68, valuing it at RM38.41 billion. It saw 8.24 million shares done.