Top Glove fired a whistleblower ahead of the Covid-19 outbreak | Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, December 13 – Yubaraj Khadka, a Malaysian worker for Top Glove Corp, took two photos in May of co-workers huddling at a factory for the world’s largest manufacturer of medical-grade latex gloves.

As the coronavirus pandemic progressed, photos seen by Reuters show dozens of workers lined up less than a meter away to have their temperature checked before starting the night shift as a precaution against the disease.

The company required everyone to wear masks and gloves, but Khadka and five other workers told Reuters that social distancing was not enforced or followed outside the factory.

Fearful of losing his job if he complained directly to management, Khadka, 27, sent the photos to a worker rights activist in his native Nepal, who sent them to the company and the Malaysian government, unidentified. who took them.

On September 23, Top Glove sent Khadka a letter terminating her employment for sharing the photos. In the letter, seen by Reuters, the company said it identified him as the author of the CCTV coverage photos of the workers entering the factory.

Fast forward nearly three months, Top Glove’s dormitory and factory complex in Klang, 40km west of Kuala Lumpur, has become Malaysia’s largest coronavirus cluster with more than 5,000 infections, about 94 percent of them foreign, the country’s Health Ministry said in a statement on December 1.

Top Glove did not comment on that number at the time. It said Wednesday that a total of 5,147 workers at its Klang factories tested positive.

The episode is another indicator of how the risk of infection from the virus has fallen more heavily on the poorest manual workers in crowded facilities around the world, from meat packing plants to shipping warehouses.

On November 23, the Malaysian government ordered Top Glove to begin shutting down its factories in stages, so that workers could be screened. The country’s Labor Department said earlier this month it would press charges against Top Glove for housing its workers, which it deemed cramped and poorly ventilated.

“There was no distance of one meter. That’s what I wanted to show, ”Khadka told Reuters from Nepal, where he is looking for work. “Even in the factory, after the first few months (of infections in Malaysia), the markers of social distancing were removed.”

After being fired from his job as a quality consultant, he returned to Nepal on his own, paying US $ 400 (RM1,600) for his flight home and another US $ 70 for a coronavirus test. It was negative.

Top Glove told Reuters in a statement on Monday that it introduced temperature controls and more regular sanitation of factories, offices, transport vehicles and dormitories at the beginning of the pandemic, and that it is in the process of improving the accommodation of its workers. “Our workforce of 21,000 employees is the backbone and foundation of the company and is central to our mission to ensure safe human protection globally,” the company said.

None of the workers have died. Top Glove said Wednesday during its financial results call that 94 percent of the workers surveyed are now fit to return to work.

The company told Reuters it settled the issues with Khadka amicably, but declined to comment further on issues raised by his photos and by a complaint from worker rights activist Andy Hall.

Five current workers who spoke to Reuters corroborated Khadka’s account. They said that starting in March they were provided with masks, face shields and disinfectants, and markers were placed on factory floors to help maintain distance between workers. But they said there was no consistent application of the rules and that it was difficult to maintain distancing in production areas, where they had to work closely in groups of two and three, and in packing areas where up to a dozen people had to. work together.

Hall, 41, said he sent the photos to officials at Malaysia’s trade and health ministries and received no response. A report from the Malaysian Ministry of Health in May said Top Glove’s coronavirus prevention measures were “very satisfactory”, although it noted that social distancing at its factories could be improved and provide more hand sanitizer. The Malaysian Ministry of Health has not publicly commented since then on conditions inside Top Glove factories. He did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

The Malaysian government did not respond to questions from Reuters.

Hard to distance

Top Glove makes a quarter of the world’s medical rubber gloves, up to about 250 million a day. Their profits have increased during the pandemic.

For the fiscal year ending in August, the company reported a net profit of $ 470 million, more than five times the $ 90 million the previous year. Its market value peaked at nearly $ 20 billion in early August. The company said in September that it was exploring listing its shares in Hong Kong.

It operates 47 plants in total, 41 in Malaysia and the rest in Thailand, China and Vietnam. Thirty-six of them produce gloves. It has around 16,000 factory employees, just over half of them in factories in Klang. Almost all are migrant workers from Bangladesh and Nepal, who earn the minimum wage of $ 295 per month.

Production continued at Top Glove factories, according to workers interviewed by Reuters, even after a surge in infections in migrant worker dormitories in neighboring Singapore.

Workers said canteens and factory entrances were often crowded, as were buses to their dormitories, where up to 20 people live in one room. Photos taken by the workers, seen by Reuters, show clothes and towels hanging from the bed frames, and food, dishes and appliances stored under and around the bunk beds. The people seen in the bedroom photos are not wearing masks.

The bedrooms are provided by Top Glove. The company did not respond to Reuters questions about the number of people living in the rooms. Since the outbreak, the company has moved some workers to hotels temporarily, but they will eventually return to dormitories. Top Glove told Reuters that wearing masks was mandatory for workers, but did not specify whether that was included in bedrooms.

“We are aware that there is much more to do to improve the level of well-being of our employees and we promise to rectify deficiencies immediately,” Top Glove said in its quarterly earnings statement Wednesday.

He said he has spent about $ 5 million buying apartments for workers in the past two months and is renting more houses to them. He said he has earmarked about $ 25 million for investments in workers’ facilities and accommodation, including what he called “mega-shelters.”

The workers, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs, said there were no regular tests for the coronavirus. Top Glove said Wednesday that before the outbreak, workers were only screened before flying home, in accordance with the requirements of most airlines.

Pressure to produce

Business began to grow for Top Glove in the early months of this year, as coronavirus infections spread across the world.

The Malaysian government imposed strict lockdown measures in mid-March, in an effort to contain the country’s first major outbreak, which limited Top Glove to operating with just half its staff.

Weeks later, the government granted exemptions to Top Glove and many other Malaysian companies deemed essential and they were allowed to operate with all staff.

The European Union, desperate for more gloves, had pushed hard for the exemption, as had other customers. The then EU Ambassador to Malaysia, María Castillo Fernández, wrote to Malaysia’s Trade Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali on March 25, saying: “Any effort to exceptionally maintain full production in this particular sector with global implications It will be much appreciated”. According to the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, he suggested operating factories 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Fernández, who now has a different role in the EU, declined to comment. EU representatives in Kuala Lumpur and Brussels declined to comment on the letter. Malaysia’s Commerce Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the Reuters letter.

“Almost every country in the world was in a panic,” said a senior Malaysian rubber glove industry executive who does not work for Top Glove. “We told the embassies, ‘If they want us to help them, we want them to help us pressure our government to allow the glove industry to operate.’

Once full operation resumed in March, Khadka and five other Top Glove workers say supervisors told them to work harder and set bigger targets for production and packaging as the company scrambled to meet demand. The company said it increased production and paid workers about $ 2 for every hour they voluntarily worked on what was supposed to be their only day off per week.

Even with coronavirus vaccines looming and some factories shutting down, Top Glove’s business outlook is strong. Analysts expect earnings for the current financial year to quadruple, based on growing demand for gloves. On Wednesday, Top Glove posted a record quarterly net profit.

The day before, Reuters witnessed hundreds of workers queuing to exit one of the factories in Klang, using two fingerprint readers to mark their exit. There was no social distancing effect or hand sanitizer next to the fingerprint reader. – Reuters