Top Glove has experienced increasing demand since the inception of the coronavirus. (File)
Kuala Lumpur:
The United States has banned the import of surgical gloves from two subsidiaries of Top Glove in Malaysia – the world‘s largest manufacturer of the product – due to concerns about forced labor, despite growing demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
Countries around the world have struggled to source protective gear, from gloves to face masks, from the start of the pandemic to the start of the year.
But Malaysia’s top glove said on Thursday that the ban affected about half of its sales in the United States.
US Customs and Border Protection have confirmed the ban on the entry of products from the two subsidiaries into the country, without providing details. However, the ban was imposed through a “provisional release order”, linked to problems of forced labor.
Malaysia is the world‘s largest supplier of rubber gloves, but the industry has long faced allegations of mistreatment of its workforce, which is mainly poorly paid migrants.
Top Glove has previously faced allegations in the media that its employees were working under operating conditions, but insists that it worked hard to resolve the issues.
The company said it needs to contact US officials to find out why the ban was imposed, but this may be linked to the issue of fees paid by foreign workers to employment agents.
Migrant workers often pay large sums of money to find jobs in Malaysia, but activists have long complained about this practice.
Top Glove said it has been covering all recruitment costs since January 2019, but has yet to reimburse the costs to workers paid before that date.
“Over the past few months, we have been working on this issue, which requires extensive research, to establish the exact amount to be reimbursed to our workers,” said a company statement.
The company said it hoped the ban would be lifted within two weeks. Its shares fell 2.5% following the news.
Another Malaysian glove manufacturer, WRP, was banned in the United States last year, but it was lifted in March.
Top Glove, which can produce more than 70 billion gloves per year, has seen an increase in demand since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States is the hardest hit country in the world, with more than 137,000 deaths from COVID-19 and nearly 3.5 million infections, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
