9 March 2021

Top Glove Corp Bhd said an independent consultant has found there is “no longer” any indication of systemic forced labour at the world’s largest medical glove maker after it took steps to address U.S. allegations of such practices.

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Top Glove appointed London-based ethical trade consultancy Impactt to assess its trade, human rights and labour practices after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last year placed products of two of its subsidiaries on an import ban due to suspicion of forced labour.

“The independent consultant’s opinion as of January 2021 was that there is no systemic forced labour within the group,” said Top Glove Executive Director Lim Cheong Guan.

He said the findings came after the consultant verified the company had implemented correction action plans submitted to U.S. authorities for review and approval.

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The CBP told Reuters it has received and is evaluating Top Glove’s request for modification of the ban.

“The length of the review process for such petitions varies with the individual facts and circumstances of each case,” the CBP said in an email.

Impactt in a statement said Top Glove had engaged it in July to perform quarterly verification until August this year.

It said as at January, it “no longer” found indicators of forced labour among direct employees such as abuse of vulnerability, restriction of movement, excessive overtime or the withholding of wages.

It said Top Glove was making progress on other indicators such as the retention of identity documents, abusive working and living conditions, deception, debt bondage, physical and sexual violence and intimidation.

“Considering the group’s ongoing actions, these findings do not amount to systemic forced labour,” it said.

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