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PETALING JAYA: A Bangladeshi worker at a Top Glove factory in Ipoh lost his hand in an accident yesterday.
The general worker’s hand was severed after being caught in a rotating shaft towards the end of his 13-hour shift. He received first aid at the factory and was taken to the hospital.
In a statement to FMT, Top Glove confirmed that an “incident” had occurred at its Ipoh factory around 5.45am and said the worker was reported to be in stable condition.
“The company is moving rapidly towards establishing additional and strict corrective measures to continue promoting the well-being of its workers and ensuring that they are safe from harm and injury,” he said.
One of the worker’s colleagues told FMT that they were under pressure to keep up with the growing demand for medical gloves during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Some accidents are not reported,” said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous.
Top Glove has enjoyed record profits this year thanks to increased demand for medical gloves, and its quarterly profit of RM1.29 billion for the fourth quarter ending August 31 was almost 18 times higher than the RM74.17 million that recorded in the corresponding report. quarter of last year.
However, the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association said last month that the industry was struggling to meet demand due to a shortage of workers, which had cost around RM7.6 billion in lost export revenue just this year.
An exposition by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2018 found that some workers worked overtime at Top Glove, where they often logged 12-hour shifts and logged 90-120 overtime hours per month.
Similar allegations have surfaced during the pandemic, and in a statement earlier this month, Top Glove said it was complying with Malaysian labor laws that stipulate a maximum of 104 overtime hours per month and one day off per week.
The worker’s colleague said he was among those who worked the night shift from 7pm to 8.30am yesterday. The shift includes three 30-minute breaks.
Meanwhile, the Penang branch of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) has asked the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH) to investigate the incident, stating that it was its opinion that industrial accidents were generally caused by the negligence of employers by providing a safe workplace. .
“As we have been given to understand, all hazardous operations, involving rotating blades, shafts, etc., must be installed with adequate preventive safeguards, such as isolation sensory switch systems, as a precaution to avoid unwanted mishaps, such as case in question ”. said the division secretary, K Veeriah, in a statement.
