"Malaysian factories accused of 'forced labour' make rubber gloves for Britain's health service", 9 December 2018

Britain is launching an investigation into medical gloves used by its health service after reports of forced labour, forced overtime, debt bondage, withheld wages and passport confiscation in Malaysian factories where they were made.

...Top Glove and WRP – are allegedly subjecting thousands of migrant workers from Nepal and Bangladesh to exploitative working conditions....

...Top Glove...released a statement..."Lengthy working hours are our main concern and we continue to explore every possible way to address the issue of our workers' excessive daily OT," the company said.

..."Top Glove adopts a zero-tolerance policy with any regard to the abuse of human's rights at all levels," said the statement. "In fact our human/labour rights and health initiatives exceed those of the glove industry average."

WRP chief executive, Lee Son Hong, denied the allegations as "baseless", saying the company had "never forced any worker to work 12 hours a day without a day of rest in a week".

"We are appalled that the issue of withholding pay and payment is made once every three months is brought up as we pay monthly wages according to the Malaysian Employment Act," Lee said.

Lee also denied workers were not free to leave the factory premises and they do not confiscate workers' passports, but kept them in accessible lockers. "Our workers want us to keep their passports for safekeeping," Lee insisted.