The Malaysian group Top Glove has seen its profits jump this year and its stock market price soar by more than 400% thanks to the pandemic which has pushed many countries to rush on its protective equipment. But in an interview with AFP, the migrant, who worked long days on the chain with a salary of 300 dollars a month, describes unworthy accommodation conditions: overcrowded dormitories where up to 25 people were crowded in the same room on bunk beds. Several other employees interviewed believe that the group has not done enough to protect them despite successive alerts. Top Glove had previously been banned from exporting to the United States after allegations of forced labor earlier this year.
A quarter of positive workers
More than 5,000 workers, nearly a quarter of its workforce, have tested positive in the area where its factories and workers’ homes are located on the edge of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. In response to the surge in cases, the government in November ordered Top Glove to shut down 28 of the 41 factories it operates in Malaysia. But the manufacturer, which supplies about a quarter of the gloves sold globally, has warned it anticipates delivery delays and price hikes. The authorities are considering legal action, with heavy fines, against the group for having accommodated the workers in unworthy dormitories. Overcrowding which worsened the situation, according to the Bangladeshi worker Sheikh Kibria. “The room was kept to a minimum. And it’s almost impossible to keep it clean when so many people live together.” “It’s like a military barracks, but less well maintained.”
When the situation escalated last month, Top Glove began transferring infected workers to hospital and those who had been in contact with them to quarantine centers. Top Glove did mention a reduction in rooms, but “the rooms remained overcrowded, and in the end the cases of coronavirus multiplied,” Karan Shrestha, a Nepalese migrant told AFP. “The group has not ensured the safety of the workers. Those who run it are greedy and care more about their income and profits,” he said. AFP used pseudonyms to protect the identity of the workers.
“I’m afraid”
Top Glove, which employs some 21,000 workers and produces 90 billion gloves per year, claims to have made efforts. The group says it has spent $ 5 million on accommodation for workers over the past two months and plans to build “mega-hotels” with modern infrastructure to accommodate more than 7,300 people. “We realize that there is still a lot more to do to raise the level of well-being of our employees and we promise to correct mistakes immediately,” said group executive director Lee Kim Meow.
These promises, however, were made the week the company posted quarterly net income multiplied by twenty to $ 590 million. “The group, its investors and its buyers have given priority to higher, faster glove production and higher profitability, to the detriment of the health of the workforce, especially immigrants”, underlines Andy Hall, defender of the rights of migrant workers in Asia.
Malaysia, a relatively wealthy Southeast Asian country of 32 million people, attracts large numbers of migrants from Asia to its factories and agricultural sector. Top Glove specifies that its factories are being reopened and that the majority of hospitalized workers are recovered. But some fear returning to production lines even if the group is now trying to enforce social distancing and provide protective equipment. “I’m afraid to go back to work at the factory.” “Even with extra precautions it is very difficult to prevent contamination,” worries Salman, a Bangladeshi man interviewed in a hotel.
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