Top Glove to refund RM136 million to foreign workers

 

Top Glove says all the information on its refund to foreign workers has been submitted to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

PETALING JAYA: Top Glove Corp Bhd has confirmed that it will refund its backdated recruitment fees to its foreign workers.

“Top Glove is pleased to affirm its commitment to remediating its migrant workers with respect to recruitment fees previously paid by the migrant workers to agents or other parties,” it said in a statement.

The glove-maker said the remediation will be based on the revised sum of approximately RM136 million, in accordance with recommendations by an independent consultant, following the completion of the independent consultant’s comprehensive verification work.

“Migrant workers will receive remediation over the next 10 months from October 2020 onwards,” it said adding that the company had made the first two remediation payments in August and September this year.

It was believed that the company has made an initial payment of RM4.4 million in August.

It sought to assure that all necessary information had been submitted to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and that the company had also been following up closely with them for resolution of the matter and the revocation of the Withhold Release Order (WRO).

Previously, The Los Angeles Times reported that Top Glove, the world’s largest glove manufacturer, recently distributed letters to employees stating it will pay workers from Nepal about US$1,500 (RM6,247) and workers from Bangladesh about US$4,800 (RM19,989) to cover fees they paid to recruitment agencies.

The newspaper said its report was based on letters it had seen.

The payments to the company’s 10,000 foreign workers would work out to a total of roughly US$40 million (RM166.58 million), about three-and-a-half times more than what the company initially promised, the report said. - FMT