US customs starts seizing Top Glove shipments
Despite assertions by the management of Malaysian glove maker Top Glove to have sorted out issues over its treatment of labourers, the US Customs and Border Protection has seized the first shipment to the country amid a full import ban.
Around 3.97 million disposable gloves estimated to be worth $518,000 were impounded as the ban is still in force, according to Reuters.
The US customs on March 29 issued a forced labour finding based on evidence of multiple forced labour indicators in the world’s largest medical glove maker’s production process.
It had initially banned products from two of Top Glove’s subsidiaries last July, but extended the ban to all of the manufacturer’s products made in Malaysia in March.
The indicators included debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions and retention of identity documents, the agency said and then ordered personnel at all US ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by Top Glove.
Top Glove says shortcomings were resolved
Top Glove said in April its glove production has been affected because of the US ban and announced last week it had resolved all indicators of forced labour in its operations, citing a report by a UK-based ethical trade consultancy Impactt Limited, which it hired.
Further, in a internal letter to employees and shareholders also last months, executive chairman Lim Wee Chai acknowledged the company’s shortcomings regarding employee welfare and personally promised to review and correct its labour practices.
Despite assertions by the management of Malaysian glove maker Top Glove to have sorted out issues over its treatment of labourers, the US Customs and Border Protection has seized the first shipment to the country amid a full import ban. Around 3.97 million disposable gloves estimated to be worth $518,000 were impounded as the ban is still in force, according to Reuters. The US customs on March 29 issued a forced labour finding based on evidence of multiple forced labour indicators in the world’s largest medical glove maker’s production process. It had initially banned products from two of Top Glove’s...
Despite assertions by the management of Malaysian glove maker Top Glove to have sorted out issues over its treatment of labourers, the US Customs and Border Protection has seized the first shipment to the country amid a full import ban.
Around 3.97 million disposable gloves estimated to be worth $518,000 were impounded as the ban is still in force, according to Reuters.
The US customs on March 29 issued a forced labour finding based on evidence of multiple forced labour indicators in the world’s largest medical glove maker’s production process.
It had initially banned products from two of Top Glove’s subsidiaries last July, but extended the ban to all of the manufacturer’s products made in Malaysia in March.
The indicators included debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions and retention of identity documents, the agency said and then ordered personnel at all US ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by Top Glove.
Top Glove says shortcomings were resolved
Top Glove said in April its glove production has been affected because of the US ban and announced last week it had resolved all indicators of forced labour in its operations, citing a report by a UK-based ethical trade consultancy Impactt Limited, which it hired.
Further, in a internal letter to employees and shareholders also last months, executive chairman Lim Wee Chai acknowledged the company’s shortcomings regarding employee welfare and personally promised to review and correct its labour practices.
