KUALA LUMPUR – After a series of raids on glove-making premises, two global importers are rethinking their business ties with a Malaysian manufacturer, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
This comes after the raid at two of the manufacturer’s subsidiaries, where the workers accommodations were said to be “abysmal”.
American giant Kimberly-Clark was quoted as saying that it was “evaluating the matter”, whether it wanted to continue to do business with said manufacturer.
Kimberly-Clark’s spokesman told FMT it was concerned by the recent reports and was committed to ensuring that its employees around the world – including those of its suppliers – were treated with respect.
“Through our processes to hold suppliers to high standards of safety, quality and compliance, we have identified some improvement opportunities and will continue to work with (the company) as we would with any supplier to enable meaningful improvements.
“Importantly, we also know that through continued engagement, there is a greater chance of affecting positive outcomes in this regard,” it was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Australian firm Ansell, which supplies to the UK’s National Health Service, was quoted as saying that it was planning to meet the manufacturer’s managing director “as quickly as possible”.
FMT linked the two importers’ replies to a raid on Monday, where workers were found to be living in shipping containers, and another raid on Thursday on its sister company.
“We were shocked to see such living conditions (in the first factory), which are absolutely unacceptable,” an Ansell spokesman told the portal.
“Based on the photos and video included in the media reports, it is evident that the living conditions provided for some workers at the site are unacceptable and are a violation of Ansell’s ethical labour standards, human rights statement and supplier code of conduct.”
Ansell also said that it is unaware of the workers’ living conditions as a third-party audit in May 2019 did not reveal this issue.
It was reported that Ansell in 2018 looked into Top Glove Corp Bhd after an ABC News investigation revealed the practice of excessive overtime and costly recruitment fees for its foreign workers. – The Vibes, December 27, 2020
