Top Glove: Worker exploitation claims by British TV ‘highly inaccurate’

KUALA LUMPUR (June 18): Top Glove Corporation Bhd has described as “highly inaccurate” claims of worker exploitation made by Britain’s Channel 4 News in an investigative report aired on Tuesday.

In a statement today, the world’s largest glove maker said many of the allegations are historical and that significant improvements have already been made.

The company said it has been compliant with local labour laws, and has implemented environmental, health and safety measures for its workers.

“Every employee’s safety, health and wellbeing has always been of utmost importance to Top Glove, all the more during this COVID-19 era,” Top Glove’s general manager of human resources, William Yap, said in the statement.

Among other things, the Channel 4 News investigation alleged that foreign workers at Top Gloves’ factories faced a huge amount of salary deduction, were forced to work overtime and did not practise social distancing.

In rejecting the allegations, the company said: “Top Glove pays its workers in accordance with Malaysian labour law on wages, which is a basic monthly salary of RM1,200 per month. However, the worker’s take-home pay is more than RM1,600 per month.

“In addition, the company recently made an ex-gratia payment to its workers in appreciation of their contribution during the pandemic,” it added.

Top Glove said its workers do not perform excessive or forced over time and are given a rest day a week, adding that it has been verified by external audits and Malaysian Government authorities.

“We are committed to adhering to internationally-recognised standards in our social compliance practices and since January 2019 have attended to more than 100 international external audits at Top Glove’s factories,” said Yap.

“The positive outcomes of audits such as those conducted by SMETA and the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) reflect excellent progress in our social compliance, where concentrated efforts were made to enhance our labour practices comprehensively to meet stringent international requirements,” he said.

Yap also noted that in December 2019, the company’s factory received an ‘A’ rating by global business association Amfori following an international-level social audit in accordance with the BSCI standards.

Reprinted from theedgemarkets, the copyright all reserved by the original author. #Knowledge# #CoronavirusOutbreak##Malaysia#