KUALA LUMPUR – Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) has continued to engage with US Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) over forced labour claims against the company.
SDP senior independent director Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan described the issue as a “wake-up call” for the company and that it would look into changes in its operations.
“We are an over 200-year-old company. Plantation (operations) have always run the same way. It is about time we take a very hard look at how we do this and make changes.
“Therefore, I take it positively. Sitting on a board is no walk in the park. Things will go wrong and things do go wrong.
“What is important is how you go about it,” she said at a panel session titled “Corporate Governance Post Pandemic: Redefining Malaysia’s Corporate Purpose” here today.
The session was held on the sidelines of the Institutional Investors Council Malaysia-Securities Industry Development Corp Corporate Governance Conference 2022.
The US CBP had on December 30, 2020, issued a withhold release order to SDP and subsequently issued its findings on January 28 this year that certain palm oil products of the company were produced using convict, forced, or indentured labour. The claims involved palm oil and palm oil products from SDP, its subsidiaries, and joint ventures at its Malaysian operations.
“We can’t make our impact report public because we are still engaging with the US CBP and it is not right to make it public before (the engagement). In fact, it will jeopardise the process,” said Zaiton. – Bernama, September 23, 2022
