Top Glove's migrant workers to receive reimbursement up to RM20k each

 

Top Glove is purportedly compensating up to nearly RM20,000 per person to some of its migrant workers as part of its efforts to resolve the US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) import ban.

The payments are to compensate migrant workers who were forced to pay recruitment fees to agencies in order to gain employment with the company.

Labour activist Andy Hall said about 12,000 migrant workers are currently in the company's employment and they are expected to receive compensation which supposedly varies based on their nationalities as well as the date of their recruitment.

Workers were informed that those of different nationalities would receive a varying amount of compensation as different nationalities had paid different amounts in recruitment fees, he said in a statement today.

Hall said documents provided by workers suggest that Bangladeshi workers will receive almost RM20,000, Myanmarese workers will get about RM7,000, Vietnamese workers will get slightly below RM6,000, and Indonesian workers will receive about RM1,000.

Meanwhile, Nepali workers will receive about RM6,000 but those recruited after Jan 1, 2019, will receive about half of that amount.

The compensation will be paid to the workers over a 12-months according to letters received by the workers.

Hall said workers were also informed that their reimbursement would depend on whether they were recruited under the company's Zero Cost Recruitment Policy which was implemented on Jan 1, 2019, or before this date.

However, those recruited under the Zero Cost Recruitment Policy would receive a lowered amount of reimbursement, he said.

Malaysiakini has attempted to contact Top Glove for a response on this matter.

"This U-turn in corporate decision making is finally a welcome admission by Top Glove that the company's so-called 'ethical or zero cost' recruitment processes implemented since Jan 1, 2019 remain unethical and extortionate such that recruited workers have continued to pay high costs for their jobs.

"Likewise, it seems Top Glove has accepted recruitment-related fees and costs expenses by its workers were much more than estimated initially or more of these costs should be paid back to the workers," he said.

Hall said that while the reimbursement process finally provides Top Glove migrant workers to gain some benefit, this should only be the start.

However, he claimed that the 12-month repayment period is "inappropriate" for a company making such large profits at this time as it will only prolong the debt bondage of its migrant workers.

Migrant workers often paid their recruitment-related fees and costs in one go, he said, so it only makes sense for the company to compensate them in a one-off or short payment as well.

It was reported in August that Top Glove had commenced reimbursing its migrant workers who joined the company prior to the implementation of its Zero Cost Recruitment Policy in January last year.

At that time, Top Glove said it had disbursed RM4.4 million to an undisclosed number of migrant workers.

This was an outstanding issue which led the US CBP to issue two of Top Glove's subsidiaries with an import sanction.

Top Glove had said that the total remediation fee to be paid is estimated to be RM53 million, subject to finalisation with the CBP and that the company is continuously engaging with the CBP to resolve the withhold release order.

Top Glove is the world's largest medical rubber glove manufacturer and currently operates 34 glove factories, from a total of 45 facilities worldwide, with a total workforce of 20,000. - Mkini