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KUALA LUMPUR, November 25 – Top Glove Corporation Berhad said he did not understand why Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan called his workers’ dormitories “deplorable” and invited him to evaluate their new facilities.
Top Glove Chief Executive Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai said the ministry inspected the bedrooms about several months ago, after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) banned imports from two Top Glove subsidiaries. on suspicion of forced labor in July.
Rejecting claims that the rooms were overcrowded and unsanitary, he said the company spent nearly RM20 million to purchase upgraded accommodation for its workers to comply with the Minimum Standards of Housing and Workers’ Services Act.
“I don’t know why he said this recently. We also welcome you to visit us again. Since the minister’s visit, our condition has improved since then.
“So it was a big surprise when such a comment was made. We will need to clarify with the ministry to see what are the areas that we are not doing correctly and continue to improve, “he said during a virtual press conference held through Zoom.
During the virtual sessions, photographs of the current bedroom and the services provided were shown to the media.
Saravanan was quoted in an English newspaper yesterday as saying that the entire Labor Department will be tasked with investigating conditions at Top Glove factories in Klang, Selangor.
In Klang alone, the company has 28 factories, which have become the epicenter of the Teratai cluster with 4,036 Covid-19 cases reported since November 7. More than 80 percent of those infected are foreign workers.
Echoing Lim’s comment, Top Glove Managing Director Datuk Lee Kim Meow said the company wanted to correct views on the well-being of its workers and insisted that it has made progress in this area with advice from the relevant authorities since July.
“We know that this problem has worried many industries. We felt that at that point we needed to do more and the ministry came to us and we showed them. They gave us a thumbs up and congratulated us.
“We have followed it very closely and we have given guarantees to our shareholders. We want to put this behind us. As you can see, as a result of this episode we also realized that the virus does not discriminate against any of the parties, “he said, adding that since then the company has sought to better control and strengthen its preventive measures.
In response to the large number of cases involving his workers within the Teratai cluster, Lim revealed that around 3,000 people at the company understood those who tested positive.
However, he expressed amazement at the number of positive cases among his employees, citing how some of them could be false positives in reference to the first batch of screening carried out in early November where 17 out of 30 of the workers obtained such results.
However, Lim said he was not questioning the data from the Health Ministry, but added that they were working closely with them to determine the best test method for Covid-19, as sensitivity will determine the number of positive cases.
As for the staff who have been discharged from the hospital, Lim claimed they have been placed in hotels as they were not allowed to return to their dormitories after an Enhanced Motion Control (EMCO) order was imposed to facilitate screenings. of Covid-19 directed from November. November 17 to 30.
Top Glove, the world’s largest manufacturer of rubber gloves, currently employs more than 21,000 workers nationwide.
On Monday, the NSC ruled that Top Glove must shut down its factories in stages after the highly infectious virus was found to have penetrated workers’ accommodations and entered the wider community.
