27 December 2020

Two key global glove importers are re-evaluating their relationship with a Malaysian glove manufacturer after government raids uncovered abysmal foreign worker accommodations at two of its subsidiaries.

Kimberly-Clark, the American personal care giant behind household brands such as Kleenex, Scott and Huggies, told FMT it was “evaluating the matter” when asked whether it would continue to source from the company.

Meanwhile, Ansell, an Australian safety and personal protection firm which supplies the UK’s National Health Service, said it was planning to meet the company’s managing director “as quickly as possible” to decide on the consequences of this “unacceptable situation”.

A multi-agency operation at one of the factories on Monday found 781 workers living behind the building in two blocks of shipping containers stacked three storeys high. A separate raid on its sister company on Thursday found workers crammed into two warehouses at either end of a pathway filled with mountains of garbage and factory waste.
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