Top Glove downgraded from A to D in social compliance audit

Malaysian glovemaker Top Glove has been downgraded from A to D in an audit for social compliance.

Top Glove was downgraded in the Amfori Business Social Compliance (BSCI) audit following a review because there was no evidence to support the A rating given to Top Glove in June, Amfori told Malaysiakini.

"In relation to the Top Glove facility audit rating, the modification of result A to D follows a thorough review of the facility’s audit report.

"Due to a lack of supporting evidence for the conclusions indicated in the audit report, the audit result of that facility was reviewed," it said in an email.

Amfori, however, noted that the rating only shows a snapshot of the working conditions at the Top Glove facilities during the time of the audit.

"Auditing results do not provide a long-term view of a factory group such as Top Glove, which manufactures products from a large number of facilities," it said.

When contacted last Monday, Top Glove said it needed time to collate more information before it could respond.

"We are gathering more information on the recent reversal of the audit result and hence are unable to comment further at this juncture.

"We appreciate your patience and look forward to providing clarity on the matter as soon as we are able to," a spokesperson told Malaysiakini last Tuesday.

The company has not responded at the time of this writing.

The Amfori BSCI is an industry-led movement to monitor and assess workplace standards across the global supply chain.

The audits return a rating of A to E, alongside a remediation plan for improvement.

Amfori said it proactively reviewed audits where ratings of A or B were given, in response to the fresh allegations of human rights violations, to ensure the ratings were supported with robust evidence.

In July, Malaysiakini reported Amfori was reviewing an A rating given to one Top Glove facility after it learnt the audit was not conducted unannounced.

The unannounced or surprise audit was a requirement after the facility received a poor score in a 2018 audit.

However, this condition was not complied with and Amfori has since stopped working with the audit firm involved.

Top Glove is currently facing an import ban by the US Customs over allegations of forced labour.

This is related to fees paid by migrant workers to recruitment agents, which is seen to lead to debt bondage and is a marker of forced labour.

Top Glove has committed to refunding up to RM160 million of those "recruitment" fees to workers, in hopes that the US will lift the ban.

It said that moving forward, its recruitment methods would ensure that workers will not have to pay hefty fees to work at Top Glove.

In rebutting the allegations of human rights violations, the company had also cited the A rating it received from the Amfori BSCI audit in June.

It posted a record quarterly net profit of RM1.29 billion in August, a whopping 18 times more than the same quarter last year, due to a surge of global demand in rubber gloves in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. - Mkini